Exodus
by DreamsMadeFlesh
Summary: COMPLETE Severus' first year as Potions techer and head of Slytherin is off to a good start... but trouble is just around the corner. He isn't the only one at Hogwarts with a hidden past.. and secrets can be deadly.
1. back to Hogwarts

Chapter 1: Back to Hogwarts  
  
Rakka Darkflame sat back against the plush seat of the Hogwarts Express with a sigh. She was returning for yet another year, her seventh and last, as a Slytherin. It was a week and a half after her 18th birthday when she was dozing off on the clunking train to Hogwart's School of Wizardry. Her last hurrah would be nothing more than another boring year of levitating feathers and learning poinless little spells to turn bullfrogs into mushrooms and back again.  
  
"Rakka!" Isamu Perrelfoot, Rakka's younger cousin, a fourth year fellow Slytherin, ran into the small booth, tossing herself lightly onto the seat. "Did you hear about Professor Durrendell?"  
  
"That boring old drone?" Rakka sighed, remembering the sniveling little brute who had been both their potions teacher and head of the Slytherin house. "What about him?"  
  
"He's.. dead," Isamu whispered. Rakka shook her head.  
  
"No way. No one could kill that pathetic old bag, hes to grotesque to die," Rakka spat. Her cousin wasn't usually one for gossip, though, so Rakka was inclined to believe her, despite her apparent incredulity.  
  
"It's true!" Isamu whispered harshly. "Supposedly, he was a follower of You-Know-Who."  
  
"Really?" Rakka raised one eyebrow. It almost made perfect sense.Rakka muttered all but to herself. "The miserable little wretch would probably do anything to get enough power, even join Voldemort. He had probably been with him for years, long before Voldemort had disappeared in your first year at Hogwarts, after the incident with the Boy who Lived."  
  
"Yeah, and to think we've been within a few feet of someone to evil for so long," Isamu shuddered. "I hate to even imagine what he's been up to, under our very noses, this whole time!"  
  
"How did they find out?" Rakka asked.  
  
"Well," Isamu sighed. "Apparently he'd been sent to try to kill Dumbledore. When he failed, he'd been discovered... so the rest of You-Know-Who's followers.. disposed of him. I wonder who figured it out..."  
  
"Hmm.." Rakka sighed. "I wonder who our new Potions teacher will be."  
  
"I hope he's nicer than Durrendell," Isamu grumbled.  
  
"Well," Rakka shrugged. "We'll find out soon enough. I mean, he's probably going to be the head of our house, so we should meet him soon enough."  
  
"Yeah," Isamu nodded. "After all you're a Head Girl this year, aren't you? So you'll be meeting with him as soon as we get there."  
  
"Yeah," Rakka nodded, looking out over the rolling landscape as Hogwarts grew closer, growing from a dot on the horizon. "I guess so."  
  
"And, I think we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, too," Isamu drew the door closed, flipping the latch as she reached for her bag to change from her usual clothes to her uniform. Rakka did the same.  
  
"I wouldn't be suprised," Rakka nodded, changing from her smooth black skirt to a thicker, grey wool one. "I mean, we haven't been able to keep a steady Defense teacher since Professor Garron died my second year."  
  
Just as Rakka was pulling on her robe and Isamu was buckling her shoe, the train came to a halt. There was a great shuffling as everyone on board struggled to grab what they had brought in the train cars with them and headed toward the great doors, where Headmaster Dumbledore stood waiting.  
  
"Welcome back, everyone!" Dumbledore smiled, waving one arm in an all-encompasing gesture. "As you all know, we have only until tomorrow to get settled before the first year students arrive, so I'd appreciate if everyone would head off to their rooms right away to get themselves settled in. You all know the drill by now, I assume, save for a few of you second year students who are here for the settling day for the first time, but I'll review anyway. All students, head to the main hall, while all Head Girls and Boys will be meeting with their heads of house in their offices. Once the Head Girls and Boys and heads of houses are done with their meetings, they will be joining the rest of us in the main hall. Now," he clapped his hands, "Everyone knows where to go, yes? What are we waiting for? Get going!"  
  
"Later, Rakka!" Isamu smiled, running off into the crowd headed for the main hall. With a sigh, Rakka gathered her briefcase-sized tapestry bag, which was black with a silver handle and the Slytherin green and whire crest embroidered on the front, and headed down the first staircase on her left, toward the dungeon where potions class was held. Both hands on the handle of her bag in front of her, Rakka strolled just past the classroom, to the next door, which had been Professor Durrendell's office only months before. Fighting back the grumble of resignation that had always accompanied entering that office, Rakka reminded herself that old Durrendell wouldn't be in there and, forcing her best smile, opened the door.  
  
The office was far cleaner than it had been when Durrendell had taught, with all the bottles dusted and in order. The only thing disheveled may have been the teacher, who looked like he was about to drop dead of nervousness.  
  
He couldn't have been over twenty five, by the look of him. He was thin and a bit pale, and judging by how much higher he sat in the chair behind the desk than Durrendell once had, he seemed significantly taller, perhaps just a bit over six feet in height. He muttered to himself shoving his dark hair back behind his ears, while the same rogue strands kept falling back where they had been, running stright down along the side of his eyebrows, down to only a few inches above the papers he was shuffling through, while the rest of his smoothed, raven hair fell down behind his shoulders. Rakka stifled a giggle at the poor young teacher's distress, relieved that he wasn't some other obnoxious brute like the old Slytherin head of house. Aware that he still had obviously not noticed her enterance, Rakka cleared her throat, and the young teacher jumped. This time, her efforts to hold back a grin were more straining, as she bit her lip and coughed, covering her mouth politely as she berated herself mentally for not having more self control. The young teacher stood quickly, still a bit shaky with nervousness, and smoothed his black shirt, shoving his hair back once again as he sidestepped around the desk with a suprisingly fluid motion.  
  
"Hi, I'm Rakka Darkflame, Slytherin Head Girl. You must be our new head of house."  
  
Still a bit shaky, but gaining a bit more of a fluid composure, the teacher took her hand and gave it one smooth, firm shake.  
  
"Hello, Miss Darkflame, I'm Professor Severus Snape, your new potions teacher and head of house," he nodded formally. "I'm afraid I'm still not one-hundred percent sure what we're exactly supposed to be accomplishing here.."  
  
"Don't worry, Professor Snape," Rakka smiled lightly. "My brother was Head Girl last year with Professor Durrendell. He told me every boring detail."  
  
"Well, at least one of us knows what we're doing," he shook his head lightly, with what seemed to almost be a smile as he walked back behind his desk, and gestured for her to sit, shich she did, carefully resting her bag against the side of the leather chair, sweeping her robe under her as she sat down, crossing her legs and smothing her knee-length skirt.  
  
"Okay, well, first matter of buisness, I need the password to the Slytherin chambers."  
  
"Oh, yes, I wrote that down somewhere.. Ah, it's 'firebramble' this year. It changes every school year, correct?"   
  
"Yes."  
  
"Good, it's nice to know that things haven't changed too greatly since I was here. Wandering these halls.. reminds me of when I was a young Slytherin like yourself, Miss Darkflame."  
  
Rakka smiled. At least he seemed to be a little more relaxed, his tone of voice not wavering so much as he folded his hands on the neat stack of papers on his desk.  
  
"If you don't mind my asking, how long ago did you leave Hogwarts? You barely seem much older than a final year student."  
  
"Well, you're a seventh year, correct? I graduated the spring of your second year, I should think. I haven't been out long at all, really."  
  
"Well, I'll tell you one thing, after Durrendell, that old gripe, everyone will love you," Rakka smiled. "He was such a nasty man.. I was so shocked when I made Head Girl.. he hated me! But Dumbledore chose me, since by the time they chose Head Girls, Durrendell was already thrown out of the school, little did we know."  
  
"..Thrown out? I was told he retired."  
  
"I was told he was a servant of Voldemort and tried to kill Headmaster Dumbledore. But even if that was the case, Dumbledore would tell everyone that Durrendell simply quit, so I guess we'll never know. Though I'll tell you one thing, teachers here die more often than they retire. Not that you have any need to worry, Professor. It's only the ones that get tangled up in the Dark Arts that end up in any sort of trouble. That and the likes of Professor Binns, who just don't know when to quit."  
  
"Binns is still here?" the young professor asked with a small, controlled smirk. "I figured he'd be dead by now, the boring old man."  
  
"He is," Rakka smiled, sitting back a bit more comfortably. "He died my first year. And he still teaches History of Magic. And he's still the most boring teacher here."  
  
Snape seemed a bit thrown, but covered it up quickly, shaking his head with a sigh. "So, is there anything else we need to get out of the way? We've already been here quite a while."  
  
"Well," Rakka thought back to her older brother, Zackary, recounting his talks with Professor Durrendell. "As Head Girl, I'm kind of your second in command as far as handling the other students of our house. Whenever there's a problem, you'll probably be talking to me, so we're pretty much just getting to know eachother, and you might want to let me know any ground rules that you personally want to apply either to me or to all the students in general... any particular time of day when you are not to be disturbed and whatnot. I know some of the teachers here are explicit about not being distubed after hours unless it's an extreme emergency. I figure that if I'm going to need to talk to you after classes about anything, I'll let you know about it in advance, at the end of your class or inbetween classes if I can find you in the hallway. I'll be having one of your classes almost every day, since potions is one of my major areas of study."  
  
"Well, then, it looks like you've set the ground rules for me," he smirked again. Rakka shrugged, blushing a little bit and mentally kicking herself for applying her newfound authority to one of the few people in the school that had authority over her.  
  
"Sorry," she shrank down a little bit. He laughed.  
  
"You're a real Slytherin," he shook his head. "You've got that take-charge attitude to you. I appreciate that, since I'll be relying on you alot this year, what with it being my first year teaching. I have no problem with you disturbing me any time of the night, and I leave it to your discretion wether or not something is worthy of my attention. You have the potential to be a teacher, yourself, you know."  
  
Rakka blushed a little again, this time because of the compliment, as opposed to her embarassment at overstepping her bounds, or so she had thought.  
  
"Thank you, Professor. Your opinion is greatly appreciated," she smiled, trying to regain her composure that had gotten her so far already in life. Her first day as a Head Girl was no time to lose her cool.  
  
"Well, then, since we both seem to understand our borders and limits, I think it's tiem we join the rest of our fellow teachers and students, if we're finished here," he straightened the stack of papers again, s one or two pages had shifted when he moved his arms, which had been resting on the small pile. Rakka nodded.  
  
"Sorry I'm late!" Tomas smiled from the doorway. "We had some trouble with a second year falling into an invisible step on the staircase. I had to pull him out."  
  
Snape nodded to him. "Actually, we were just getting ready to head up to the main hall, right, Miss Darkflame?"  
  
"Yeah," Rakka stood, reaching for her bag.  
  
"Alright then, off we go," Snape nodded back, standing and smoothing his long, black robe over his shirt and pants, the same raven tone as his robe and hair, walking around her to open the door. She smiled a simple 'thank you,' as he held the door before following her out, and together, they followed Tomas back up to the great hall. 


	2. family dinner

A/N: yes, i am aware that i called Zack 'Head GIRL' last chapter, i'll fix that one of these days.. once i'm done laughing at the face he would make if he heard that.. lol... ok, yes, back to the story now, eh?   
Chapter 2: the first Feast  
Rubbing her badge one more time with the cuff of her sleeve, Rakka took the empty seat beside her cousin, who had been easy enough to spot, with a bright green headband her hair, which was halfway between a dark blonde and a pale auburn, a muddled strawberry blonde, chopped close to her jawline, flipping out all around her lightly tanned face. Isamu's emerald eyes were smiling mischiefously as her older cousin, who was her complete opposite, with pale skin, hair the color of a purpley red wine, and eyes like dark chocolate.  
  
"Who's our new Head of house?" she murmured to Rakka. "He's kind of cute."  
  
Rakka had to agree with Isamu, the young professor was definately handsome, and the open stares and giggling murmurs of several girls nearby seemed to support the thought.  
  
"Poor bastard, stuck with us," Tomas, Rakka's brother, shook his head, his bold red hair as askew as ever, shading eyes as green as their cousin's.  
  
"Watch your mouth, Tomas!" Isamu waved her finger pointedly.  
  
"What are you gonna do, cast some lame curse you learned last year on him?" Rakka's other brother, Zekiel, who looked exactly like Rakka would if she had been a boy, shook his head, laughing at the girl, who fumed.  
  
"You're the Head Girl, Rakka! Shut them up!" Isamu pouted, enraged by their cruel put-downs. Of the three siblings, and their older brother and sister, Rakka was the only one who didn't pick on their younger cousin.  
  
"Yeah, squirt, shut us up!" Zekiel stuck his tongue out at Rakka, who sighed.  
  
"For someone who's less than two minutes older than me, you sure seem to let it go to your head," Rakka retorted.  
  
"She's got you there, midget," Tomas grinned, seeing Zekiel's eyes narrow to slits of anger.  
  
"You, shut it!" Zekiel huffed. "Four lousy minutes doesn't give you any authority over me, older or not!"  
  
"It gives him twice the authority that you have over me," Rakka smirked. "Now both of you, as Head Girl, I demand that you can it. Now. Dumbledore's going to start his speech any minute."  
  
"And as Head Boy, I'm going to shut up of my own free will, thank you very much," Tomas smirked.  
  
"Blah, blah blah," Zekiel stuck his tongue out at Rakka, who smirked.  
  
"Sorry, Zeke, but that's not legal, we're related, in case you forgot," she grinned, and he pulled his tongue back into his mouth quietly and leaned back, for lack of a good response. Tomas laughed.  
  
"Boys," Isamu shook her head. "I can barely deal with those two, and I don't even live with them. I don't know how you manage."  
  
"We're triplets," Rakka shrugged. "We've all had to deal with eachother since even before day one."  
  
"Oi," Remi, on Rakka's other side, laughed. "You crazy chickens."  
  
Everyone looked at Remi as though she had sprouted several heads, which, even at Hogwarts, was a rare occasion.  
  
"What?" Remi asked, pointing her spoon at Rakka. "You're all nutters, I swear."  
  
"Says the one who just called us 'crazy chickens.'" Zeke shook his head.  
  
"Shut up, lady!" Remi stuck her toungue out.  
  
"Did you just call me 'lady?'"   
  
"Yes, yes I did, LADY!!! Hehe Zeke's a laaddiieee!!!" she wailed, until Rakka clamped her hands over Remi's mouth, tryign to quiet her as Dumbledore cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. Remi bit Rakka's hand, making her yelp in pain, and earning a sidelong glance from Professor McGonagall.  
  
"Students!" Dumbledore smiled, extending his arms a bit as though he meant to hug the entire room before clasping his hands and resting his arms on the table. "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts! As you look around, you may notice some new faces up here beside me. I would like to introduce to you Professor Snape, the new Potions teacher and head of the Slytherin house," Dumbledore stood and gestured for Snape to do the same, which he did, to be met by a loud ruckus from the Slytherin table as they all rose, whooping and clapping.  
  
"Go, cutey!" Isamu laughed loudly, knowing no one besides Rakka could possibly hear her over all the noise. Rakka held her hands at about her own eye level, clapping respectfully, watching Snape, who seemed a bit bewildered by the sudden show of enthusiasm from the table of strangers. His eye caught Rakka's,and they both smiled. Rakka didn't even notice, as they all returned to their seats, that her three surrounding family members were watching her with mischeifous grins plastered to their faces.  
  
"What?" Rakka hissed as she turned, seeing six eyes watching her.  
  
"You've got a crush on professor Snape, don't you?" Isamu asked.  
  
"No!" Rakka hissed. The boys giggled, interrupted by applause from Hufflepuff as their new head of house, Professor Ganner, theDefense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was announced, a rather sickly looking man with olive green eyes.  
  
"Rakka likes Snapey, Rakka likes Snapey!" Remi taunted a little too loudly for Rakka's liking. For lack of a better way to quiet her friend, she smacked her lightly over the back of the head.  
  
"Owwie! Meanie!"Remi huffed, then laughed.  
  
"Then why were you blushing when he smiled at you?" Zekiel asked with a grin, elbowing Tomas to get his attention when Rakka grumbled, slumping over the table.  
  
"Don't you ingrates have anything better to do that watch me all the time?" she groaned.  
  
"You're our Head Girl, you're supposed to be setting an example," Tomas grinned like an idiot. "You're lucky all Slytherin eyes weren't on you just now."  
  
"Ughh.. you two just can't stand that your little sister got to be Head Girl, can you?"  
  
They both fell silent, pretending to be listening to Dumbledore. It was true that both of them had been in utter shock when she had been selected as Head Girl, more than the rest of their house. Most had expected Tomas to get his title, since Durrendell had obviously favored him, for reasons even Tomas didn't fully understand. When not only the eldest of the triplets had been acknowledged by Dumbledore's decision, much of Slytherin was shocked, Rakka included.   
  
"Well, enough of me talking! Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak, and let the feast commence!" Dumbledore announced. And with that, the food appeared, and the feast exclusive to the upperclassmen began.  
  
"Rakka loves Snaaappe!" Zekiel drawled between bites of pheasant, only to recive a firm kick to the shins from Rakka.   
  
"I can report you to him, you know, for harassing me, so don't push it," she snapped, pointing her fork at him with a glare that could kill.  
  
"It's all just a bit of fun, Rakka, lighten up," Tomas waved her off, reaching across on a diagonal (he was sitting across from Isamu, to Zekiel's left, whereas Rakka was directly across from Zekiel, to Isamu's right) to push her fork down with the tips of two fingers, so that it wasn't aimed at him. Rakka growled.  
  
"Get your grubby hands off my fork," she wiped the part he had touched vigorously with her napkin. "I don't have a clue where those fingers have been, and I don't want to find out."  
  
"Oooohh!" Zeke and Isamu both grinned at her comeback before falling into a fit of maniacle laughter, which got a laugh even out of Tomas, as they all returned to other subjects of discussion.  
  
"I'm so sick of Professor Binns' class," Isamu grumbled. "I wish I could just not take it."  
  
"Just do what I do," Zeke grinned. "Sleep through class, and steal Tomas' notebook the night before the tests!"  
  
"You little snot!" Tomas shook his head in disgust. "Don't be giving her any ideas. It's bad enough that you're always in trouble, I don't want you rubbing off on her."  
  
"So, Rakka, you're playing Quidditch again this year, right?" Isamu asked.  
  
"Yeah, definately," she nodded. She and both her brothers were on the team, and had been since second year; Tomas was Keeper and this year's captain, Zeke was a Beater, and Rakka was the team Seeker.  
  
"I think I might try out, too, for a Chaser," Isamu shrugged. I'm not sure yet, though. It looks like a brutal game... but at the same time, it looks like so much fun!"  
"Well, since Elanora Wickett and Sam Autumn left, we do have two open spaces for Chasers on the team," Tomas shrugged as well. "I was hoping you would show up for tryouts. When you practiced with us this summer, you showed quite a bit of talent, I must say."  
  
"Really?" Isamu beamed. Tomas laughed.  
  
"I just didn't tell you at the time because I didn't want you to try for the team just because you thought I wanted you to. I was making sure you really wanted to play," he smiled, cutting into his potato.  
  
Isamu was absolutely beaming the entire rest of the banquet. It looked like the Darkflame triplets were going to have a great final year at Hogwarts.  
  
But what Rakka didn't understand was... why couldn't she get her mind off her new Potions teacher? 


	3. All Hollow's Fool

A/N: Ok, before we get going this chapter, I want to make sure were on the same page, here. So here's some quick character info:  
  
The Darkflame family is, (oldest to youngest) Zachary, Eve, Tomas, Zekiel, Rakka (those three being only minutes apart), and Rhia (not yet mentioned). All the siblings who have/are attending Hogwarts are /were Slytherins, Rhia being the only one who has not been sorted yet, since she's only about 2 or 3.  
  
Isamu is their cousin on their mother's side. She grew up extremely close to the Darkflame siblings, since her mother and aunt were twins, and stayed very close. When the Darkflames were orphaned, thier aunt, Isamu's mother, chose to help their grandmother raise them. When their grandmother and Isamu's parents died less than a year later, Zackary was already old enough to legally adopt his siblings and cousin (Isamu kept her father's last name/mother's married name), and they all stayed together. Though they may tease eachother frequently, they are very close, and strongly loyal to one another, so much that it sometimes strains all relationships outside the family, which is why they have few other friends. Remi, who was Rakka's closest friend since childhood, was the only one who stood by them all during their crisis, and has pretty much been treated as a sister by the entire clan.. even if she is a bit crazy.  
  
Eventually, all of this is kind of dropped here and there in the story, but I figured maybe that might help you understand the group a bit better. Ok, yes, on to the story!!  
Chapter 3: All Hollow's Fool  
By the time Haloween had come around, Rakka had failed to convince herself that her attraction to Professor Snape was purely out of need for knowledge. She had also failed at her self assurance that he was just excessively appealing, as opposed to Professor Durrendell, and that her liking for him was simply because he was someone new, unlike everyone else in the school over the age of eleven. In the same way, her excuse of 'spring fever' failed since it was still Fall, and her reasoning that it was simply because she was happy to be back at Hogwarts fell short because, well, quite frankly, it didn't make any sense. Isamu assured her that it was perfectly normal that Rakka liked him. He was a man of resepect, a fellow magic user, not too much older, just old enough to have the 'older man' appeal, and handsome. In fact, the afternoon before the Haloween banquet, in the room the two cousins shared at the bottommost floor of the Slytherin dormitories, Isamu also assured her that quite a lot of girls in the school had an eye for him, even girls in her own grade.  
  
"But don't worry, cousin," Isamu grinned. "He has more of an eye for you than any other girl in the school."  
  
"What?" Rakka asked, blushing, a bit bewlidered that her cousin would even suggest such a thing.  
  
"You're one of his favorite students, I hear."  
  
"Yes, because I'm one of the only ones who haven't blown anything up yet. Even Remi has had an accient in that class, and she's the second best student in that class, only because I do better with hands-on activities than she does."  
  
"He's always asking to talk to you after class..."  
  
"..Because I'm Head Girl and he's head of house. It's perfectly normal. And he's usually asking me just if there have been any problems with other students in our house that he doesn't know of."  
  
"..You're the only person I ever see him smile at."  
  
"Because your class is a bunch of fourth year brutes, and you never see him with any other upperclassmen but myself. He smiles all the time in my class."  
  
"Yeah, at you."  
  
"Yeah, at me, and just about everyone else in that class, save for Zeke, but that's just because Zeke makes a mess every time we do anything, and raises his hand to answer every question, only to give some smart comment that has nothing to do with the class whatsoever. The only reason he hasn't failed that class is because of those amazing grades he manages to pull of on every test."  
  
"He goes out of his way for you. You just don't see it."  
  
"Because it's nothing personal."  
  
"You're hopeless, Rakka!" Isamu groaned. "It's no wonder you manage to be one of the most saught after girls in the school and don't have a boyfriend! You're totally oblivious!"  
  
"Don't be rediculous."  
  
"Oh yeah? Well then, did you know that Michael Swinder is totally in love with you?"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Yeah. He wants to join the Quidditch team because he's hoping you'll notice him. Betcha didn't know that."  
  
"You've got to be kidding me. There's no way. He's our cousin!"  
  
"Apparently he doesn't know that."  
  
"And isn't he only sixteen?"  
  
"Yeah, and you're only eighteen."  
  
"And you're only fifteen. What makes you think you know more about guys than I do? I've grown up with three of them, and a tomboy of a sister!"  
  
"You're nearly as much of a tomboy as Eve, running around playing Quidditch and hanging out with the boys all the time."  
  
"So do you!"  
  
"I never said I didn't. But I also have alot of friends that are girls... and what few of the guy friends I do have.. they all like you."  
  
"Good for them. It wouldn't even be legal for me to consort with any of your friends that are your age. I hope they know that."  
  
"They do. That's why they're not all over you. they know you're a lost cause, even if you weren't too old."  
  
"A lost cause?"  
  
"Frigid as the Bloody Baron, you are, and they all know that!"  
  
"At least I wouldn't try to chop their heads off," Rakka muttered.  
  
"Not with a sword, but with words, you already do."  
  
"I don't say anything rude to my fellow Slytherins. I'm a Head Girl, and I got that title by both being well mannered with my fellow students and by being a prime example of them, a representative of the best the student body has to offer. I.."  
  
"Oh, do quit your babbling, I know your whole story, no need to repeat it," Isamu grumbled goodheartedly. Rakka frowned. "Besides, it's not so much what you do say as what you don't say."  
  
Rakka's expression turned from disgruntled to confused.  
  
"When someone asks you what you're doing after classes, and all you say is, 'I've got homework and Quidditch practice,' and walk away. When one of the boys asks you how you are, and all you say is 'I'm perfectly fine, and you?' like you're talking to a teacher instead of a student. For crimeney's sake, girl, lighten up!"  
  
Rakka sighed, touching up her eyeliner in the mirror over her desk. It was true, after all. She may not look as much like a tomboy as Eve, who had spent all her years at Hogwarts in pants, never wearing a skirt once, never wearing makeup, and never giving any attention to romance. But beneath the eyeliner and skirts and high heeled shoes, she was as much of a tomboy as her sister, and just as blind to men's advances. But now that she had realized it, she surely had time to change, didn't she?  
The night of the Haloween feast, there was a second celebration afterward in the Slytherin's common room; the same little party they threw every year, with a bit of music, dancing, and some drinks that were begged for from the kindhearted cook, who always kept aside a punch bowl for that one purpose, even though she knew it skated a thin line, not necessarily against the rules, but certainly not approved of. All the students were out of uniform, a rare sight outside of the domitories themselves, and the laughter and dancing that ensued was some of the best fun most of them had all year.  
  
For the first time, the Slytherins had actually persuaded their head of house to attend, making the party perfectly allowable, and all the more noisy for it.  
  
And for the first time, Rakka actually attended.  
  
Rakka gaurded the doorway to the girl's dormitories, out of her uniform, in a black skirt that cut down on a diagonal across her knees, gathering on her left hip, directly above the lowest part of the diagonal cut, where the badge had been pinned carefully, to make it seem like the badge was holding the skirt gathered, when in all actuality, the skirt gathered at the waistline. Her stillettoes were barely more than a sole and some straps, which crossed in a loose zigzag pattern all the way up to just above below her knees,dashing black lines across her pale skin. The whole outfit was completed by a black top that came all the way up to the belt around her neck, with wide bell sleeves made of a dark mesh that started at the collar, down over her shoulders, making her pale arms shimmer beneath like silver. Her long hair was left down to curl, as it almost always was, cascading down to the small of her back, loose strands draping over her shoulders. Around her neck, she wore her black belt as though it was a choker, like always, but more visible, as it wasn't hidden under the collar of her uniform, with a silver buckle centered in the front, and a long silver chain with a cross, made of aurora boreallis stones, with a snake winding around it, a good luck charm given to her by her great grandmother, who had been a fellow Slytherin back in her day. The party was boring as anything else, and most of the night, Rakka stood gaurd, wishing she could at least go to her room and study for her upcoming history test. Every once in a while, she chanced upon a quick glance at Snape, who was chaperoning at the boy's doorway, also appearing bored near out of his mind. At eleven, he insisted that all the students go to bed, for Dumbledore would not approve of them staying up so late. As the last of the students filed through the appropriate doorways, Rakka sat back on the main room couch with a sigh.  
  
"Well, that was boring," she grumbled. Snape stood against the back of the couch, resting one hand on her shoulder.  
  
"You didn't get to dance once all night, did you, miss Darkflame?" he asked coolly. She didn't take her eyes off the fire, as he moved to turn down the music, which was coming from a magic sphere in the corner of the room, behind the punch bowl.  
  
"I never do," she shrugged. "Thats why, most of the time I never even go to such parties." She looked over at Snape, who had moved beside her.  
  
"It's your last Haloween party," he said quietly. "You should dance, just this once." Rakka blinked, looking up at him, as though to make sure it was really Snape, and not some prank by Tomas or Zeke. He held out his hand, and she took it, as he pulled her to her feet gently, smoothly, like everything else he ever did. She leaned against him cautiously, gently, afraid to touch him, for fear that he would know how hard she had fallen for him.   
  
What she didn't know was that he was being just as cautious as he let the sweet smell of her hair and the touch of her warm skin play with his senses, so softly, for the same reasons. 


	4. quidditch is not for the faint of heart

A/N: and now, time for a wonderful little break from the angst... a sliiight detuour from the plot, maybe, but in true HP style: when the plot starts getting to thick.. play Quidditch!!  
  
Everyone thank Remi and Linny for hassling me into updating.. mainly Remi this time, since she threw a fit and pretty much threatened to cry. lol.  
  
Chapter 4: Quidditch is not for the faint of heart  
  
It was a brisk morning, the first of November, a Saturday. The perfect day for Quidditch tryouts.  
  
"Welcome to tryouts!" Madam Hooch yelled to the few dozen asorted students meandering around the field curiously, some on foot, others on broomsticks. "We ask that you all sort yourselves by your house, please, and join the others of your house by the stands with your house colors! Thank you!"  
  
Rakka sat back, bored out of her skull, between Tomas and Zeke, in her rightful spot on the 'terrible trio,' as the other teams called them. Three of the top Quidditch players in Hogwarts, Rakka being one of the two best Seekers, Tomas the number one Keeper, and Zeke one of the two top Beaters the school had to offer, all on one team, all notorious for their amazing communication skills, even occasionally accused of learning some form of telepathic communication, to be able to understand eachother from opposite ends of the field so clearly. Truth was, it was simply one of the perks of being triplets, the ability to sense the slightest changes in eachother, which they also were able to half-sucessfully apply to their teammates, so far getting them second only by mere points last year, behind Gryffindor, who housed the only other notable Seeker and Beater, along with the two best Chasers in the school.   
  
However, things were going to be changing for the better soon, thanks to Tomas becoming captain, taking over for Sam after he graduated. Sam had been a great Chaser, but for a Slytherin, he didn't have much in the ways of the leadership qualities that the house prided themselves on. Considering his house, Sam had actually been quite sheepish, and was not happy with the role of captain, and would have easily passed it on, had Elanora, the only other last year student on the team, been willing to take over, which she certainly wasn't. She had always been a bit of a loose cannon, preferring to work by herself, which made her both an excellent Chaser on her own, and a poor one in the ways of the teamwork necessary to be a proper Chaser. If Rakka hadn't been such a superior Seeker, she would have switched places with Elanora, since the Seeker role was not so much one requiring a group effort, but that was the one thing Sam had ever firmly put his foot down about. Rakka was to remain a Seeker, because she was the only one they had, 'and a damned good one, at that,' as he had said.  
  
"Slytherin!" Tomas yelled, getting the attention of the buzzing group as Eara 'Remi' Remillius, one of Rakka's best friends and the only remaining Chaser from last year, sat down next to him, and Jacob, Zeke's Beater friend, sat at the other end, beside his partner in crime, and what remained of last season's team was reunited.  
  
"Now, for those of you who aren't aware, we are only in need of Chasers, and only two of them," Tomas lowered his voice a little from his prior shout, now simply projecting a louder version of conversational speech. "Anyone who came here with the intention of becoming a Beater, go home and practice until next season, when we'll be needing you. Anyone who intended to become a Keeper or Seeker, try out if you want, but keep in mind that you will be a secondary only, to take over is either myself or Rakka are for some reason unable to play."  
  
Only about three students left, leaving a crowd of about a dozen or so.  
  
"Very well, then," Tomas reached into the trunk, pulling out Quaffle. "Those of you who plan on being secondary Seekers or Keeper, sit for a while. Let's see all you prospective Chasers toss some Quaffle, shall we?"  
  
He threw the Quaffle out onto the field, watching all the students on their brooms dash off after it. He and Remi watched, murmuring back and forth, but since only those two would really be judging the two newest Chasers, Zeke and Jackob started talking, and Rakka sat back, closing her eyes for a little bit.  
  
"Have I missed anything?" a soft, smooth velvet voice asked behind Rakka, who jumped, her eyes jerking open, and turned around quickly.  
  
"Oh, Professor Snape, you startled me," she laughed lightly as he sat down on the row behind her. "Tomas and Remi are just watching the students trying out for Chasers."  
  
"Tomas is your brother, right? The one that's captain?"  
  
"Yeah," Rakka nodded, following his gaze out onto the field. Snape squinted a little, watching the players.  
  
"The one with the reddish blonde hair, she's doing quite well," Snape commented. "She looks alot like Tomas. Is she a relative of yours?"  
  
"My cousin, Isamu Perrelfoot," Rakka nodded again. "She looks just like her mother.. and our mother. They were twins."  
  
"She looks familliar," Snape puzzled. "Wait.. twins? The Muddlin Twins?"  
  
"Yeah," Rakka smiled. "You've heard of them, too? Mother and Aunt Trista had a little bit of fame with Quidditch, I hear."  
  
"Yes, they were the stars of the team in my first and second years," he smiled. "They played for Ravenclaw, didn't they?"  
  
"Yeah," Rakka looked out on the field. "They were Chasers. My father was a Seeker, and Uncle Ronald was the Keeper, both for Slytherin, a year ahead of Mom and Aunt Trista. Quidditch is in our blood."  
  
"So I see," Snape nodded. Rakka kept her eyes on her cousin, using all her self control to not turn around and stare openly at her teacher. It seemed the more she saw him, the more she felt herself drawn to the young professor. It was going to be a long year, having to see him for two different classes, and being Head Girl, which meant having to see him even more often. Thank all that was that she wasn't going to have to see him once this year was over.  
  
As the practice progressed, another prospective Chaser became dominant, a fifth year Rakka recognized as Michael Swinder. Tomas and Remi watched the ball tossing going on for well over an hour, until most of the students trying out were sitting in the benches, having given up, before they started telling certain students to sit down. By the time Tomas and Remi had agreed on the two new Chasers, they were the only two still playing, the strongest players in the beginning, and playing just as firmly once everyone else had sat out, tossing the ball back and forth, trying to make eachother slip up, unaware that they were the only ones left, since they had been focused on knocking eachother out of the runnings from the beginning. Michael rammed Isamu, nearly knocking her off her broom, as she hung upsidedown off of it,when he threw the Quaffle at her head. Rakka sat forward, horrifed, as the ball spiraled at Isamu's face as she clung to the broom with both hands and her legs, bracing herself tightly...  
  
... and reaching up with both arms, catching the ball, the force of it making her spin as she used that force to right herself. The crowd that had been on the field a while earlier cheered, and Michael zoomed over beside her to shake her hand.  
  
"Congratulations, both of you!" Tomas yelled. "And welcome to the team!" 


	5. Dormitory trouble

A/N: oh goodness... my fan base is dwindling. I don't even see the point in posting, but i'll continue, just for Remi, Sarah, courtney, and Linny, my loyal readers of every story I have, and for Jan McNeville, so that she can keep leaving me tips in my reviews and maybe someday I'll be as good as you, Jan! *blows kisses to loyal readers* anyone else who reads this, well, I wouldn't know, you don't review, ya meanies!  
  
Ah, okay, I guess I'm driving 'yall nuts by now. Go read already.  
  
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Chapter 5: Dormitory Trouble  
  
It was eleven thirty seven, and there were only three people left in the Slytherin common room - the triplets. The other students had all scuffled off early enough, and Isamu, Michael, Remi, and Jakob had the common sense to get a bit of sleep, since they had a game the following morning. But the two brothers and one sister just weren't tired.  
  
"We have a game tomorrow," Tomas sighed, staring off at the fire. "We should be in bed."  
  
"Well, captain, go to bed," Rakka said restlessly, throwing her legs over the arm of the chair, studying her Head Girl badge in the firelight.  
  
"You're the Head Girl, you go to bed, set a good example," he retorted.  
  
"I'm supposed to stay up until you are all in bed," she pointed out. "Not that I wouldn't be up if you had gone to bed any earlier. I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight, unless perhaps, mister Head Boy and captain of the team over here takes his own advice."  
  
"Are you that worried about playing Gryffindor tomorrow?" Zeke asked boredly.  
  
"Of course not," Rakka sighed, putting her badge back on. "We're going to cream them. They lost their two best players, and their new ones are pathetic. They don't stand a chance."  
  
"I know," Tomas chuckled. "It's going to be a good year, I think."  
  
"Yeah," Zeke agreed. Rakka nodded. The conversation fell to pieces, each of the three lost in their thoughts. The room was quiet, save for the crackling in the hearth, for several minutes, until the grandfather clock across the room informed them rather brazenly that it was 12 o'clock.  
  
"The Witching hour is upon us," Rakka sighed, feeling no more ready for sleep than she had three hours earlier.  
  
"Of course, the witch is the only one who cares," Zekiel laughed lightly. Rakka rolled her eyes. A the bells faded out, the sound of hurried footsteps on the flagstone steps caught their attention. Rakka turned to see Isamu, rushing into the main room from the girl's dormitories.  
  
"Rakka! Come, quick! It's Sienna! There's something wrong with her!" Isamu breathed, gasping.  
  
Rakka jumped to her feet, running after her cousin, down the stairs to the girls' rooms, where there was a crowd of first and second year girls in a panic, surrounding one bed.  
  
"Head Girl, coming through," Rakka snapped, pushing the twelve and eleven year old children out of her way as gently as she could bear to, gasping in horror.  
  
Sienna Haridon, a fair young fourth year student, was not one prone to nightmares or any other nonsense. Even when she burned her arm badly last year in Potions class, she'd kept a straight face. She was an outstanding example of keeping one's cool under fire, even when it was a literal fire that errupted when a failed potion came in contact with her skin. And now she was curled up in the fetal position, her body convulsing with both sobs and muscle spasms that ran all across her arms and legs.   
  
Rakka rushed over, grabbing the crying girl's arm, which was more than feverishly hot, trying to pull her hands away from her face, an effort which was met with screams on the part of the younger girl.  
  
"Sshh," Rakka cooed. "Sienna, darling, listen to me. What's wrong?"  
  
Sienna stopped sobbing only long enough to scream, a feral howl of pure agony. The other girls all yelped in suprise, then scrambled away as hurried footsteps rushing down the flagstone caught Rakka's attention.  
  
"Boys!" a few of the first year students cried out, scattering like startled little pheasants.  
  
"You're not supposed to come in here," Rakka snapped.  
  
"We heard screaming," Tomas answered firmly. Sienna, as though to confirm that there had, indeed, been screaming, did it again.  
  
"I'm going to get Professor Snape," Zeke turned toward the door, when Rakka grabbed his arm.  
  
"No," Rakka said firmly. "There is no need to disturb him yet. As Head Girl, I'm telling you not to."  
  
"And as your older brother, I'm telling you, we need to get him," Zeke argued.   
  
"I don't have time for this," Rakka snapped, turning back to the girl. "Tomas? Do you think you can carry her to the infirmary?"  
  
Tomas didn't say anything, he just nodded, wrapping his arms under the sheet she was laying on and lifting her in it.  
  
"Dear God, she's burning up badly. That's no normal fever," Tomas lowered her again, rubbing his forearm.   
  
"I know," Rakka answered, grabbing a blanket from another bed, tossing it to Tomas, who draped it over his arms. Carefully, Rakka rolled the crying girl into Tomas' waiting arms.  
  
"Rakka, just let me go get Snape," Zeke yelled, starting to lose his temper. "This is obviously more than just a little girl with a nightmare we're dealing with, here!"  
  
"I know!" Rakka snapped. "If you want to help, escort Tomas and Sienna to the infirmary. Someone has to be there to explain to any teachers that might ask questions on the way there. Once I have all the girls settled in again," Rakka took a deep breath, then sighed in resignation. "I'll go talk to Snape."  
  
"Alright," Zeke shook his head, following Tomas back up the staircase.  
  
"Now, all of you, back to bed," Rakka snapped. "And I pray for your welfare that all of you are where you belong when I get back. No funny business, you hear me?"  
  
After seeing Rakka yelling at the two bigger, older boys, and having them listen, all the girls that had been whispering and rustling about agreed that it was a good idea to listen as well. A lump was already forming in Rakka's throat before she left the room, and it was nearly choking her by the time she got to Snape's office door.  
  
"Professor Snape?" Rakka asked, quietly at first, then knocked firmly. "Professor Snape? It's me, Rakka. You in there?"  
  
There was a slight shuffing on the other side of the door, and a rather disheveled looking Snape answered the door.  
  
"Bloody hell, girl, do you know what time it is?" he asked, pushing his mussed up hair out of his face.  
  
"I'm sorry to bother you so late, Professor Snape," Rakka apologized quickly. "But we had a litttle problem. One of our girls, Sienna Haridon, you might know her."  
  
"She was the one who had that bad burn accident last year, right?" Snape rubbed the sleep from one eye, then the other, and blinked hard.  
  
"Yeah. The one who didn't even scream when half the skin on her arm was nearly burned off. Something's wrong with her. She was screaming, sobbing, convuslions.. an unnaturally high fever. I had to throw a blanket over Tomas' arms so he could carry her to the infirmary. They should be there by now, and I think Madam Pomfrey is going to want to see you, and me as well, no doubt."  
  
"Bloody hell," Snape murmured again, grabbing his robe and pulling it over himself, closing it tightly in the front to cover the fact that his shirt was unbuttoned, before rushing down the hallway, Rakka beside him, toward the infirmary. 


	6. Witch Fever

A/N: everyone thank Linny, for picking this over Saiyuki and X-Ev for this week's first update. And everyone yell at Courtney, because if she reviewed, I would have had this up awhile ago, but I didn't want her to fall behind.  
  
An author-y arigatou goes out to Linny, Remi, and 'Mione, your reviews. you all rock!   
  
Chapter 6: Witch Fever  
  
"Severus!" Madam Pomfrey sighed. "There you are!"  
  
"What's going on?" he asked sternly, walking alongside Madam Pomfrey toward a screened off bed, Rakka following, biting nervously at the skin on the side of her finger.  
  
"I'm not quite sure yet," the school nurse shook her head. "It's nothing I've ever seen before. I figured maye you would know, or at least be able to help me make some kind of sedative for her. She's got to be making it worse for herself, the pain she's in. Maybe, if we can get her to sleep for a little while, we can figure out what's wrong."   
  
Madam Pomfrey threw back the curtain, and Snape's face fell, some strange mixture of worry and confusion. Tomas was gently pushing the hair back from Sienna's eyes, cooing, wiping her brow with a warm cloth, while Zeke stood back, looking relieved that his sister had sucessfully retrieved the teacher.  
  
"Well, Tomas, you're majoring in the Healing Arts, are you not?" Snape asked. "Any conclusions?"  
  
Tomas shook his head. "She's got one heck of a witch fever," he muttered, letting Madam Pomfrey take over with trying to calm the sobbing girl. "Whatever she's got wrong with her, it would have killed a Muggle by now, for sure. Convulsions, bad ones, and witch fever, delerium, apparently some pretty severe pain, considering she's incoherent with sobs, and I don't think the girl's cried once in her life, surely not since she got to Hogwarts. I don't know the exact name for the poision ailing her, but I think I've found a clue."  
  
With that, Tomas stepped over to Sienna's side, turning her head gently, where they saw two small, neat little fang marks, both surrounded by thier own thick rings of deep purple, each about the size of an American Muggle dime.  
  
"Hmm.." Snape looked a bit puzzled as well. "Perhaps if we could do something to dull her pain, we could get her to describe her symptoms a bit better. Rakka, follow me. We've got some potions to make."  
  
"Me, sir?" Rakka squeaked.  
  
"Of the three of you awake, you're the one I feel is most adequate with potions, considering Tomas is busy and Zeke nearly blew up my classroom last week," Snape said firmly. "Now, if you care so much for the well being of your fellow Slytherin, I suggest you follow."  
  
Rakka nodded obediently, following him out the door. As soon as they were out into the hallway, he shook his head.  
  
"Sorry about being so rude," he sighed. "I have to try to look like I have some authority over my students every one in a great while, especially around Madam Pomfrey. She seems to think that I have no control over my classes, and she's been whining to Dumbledore about how far too many students come from my class to her infirmary."  
  
"Well, potions blow up more often than textbooks," Rakka shrugged. "And don't worry, no offense taken. I understand. After all, I was yelling at both of my brothers in front of nearly half our house, the whole girls' dormitory."  
  
Snape smirked. "You'd be a good potions teacher, Rakka. You can control a bunch of panicky first year girls, and mix a potion without blowing anything up. I commend you on that."  
  
"I'm learning from the best," she smiled, chancing a quick glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was blushing.  
  
"Thank you, Miss Darkflame," he said politely, blankly. "Your opinion is greatly appreciated."  
  
Rakka smiled and shook her head. The same neutral, polite comeback she had used when they first met. How beautifully ironic.  
  
Snape opened the door to his classroom, then brushed past Rakka, digging through his pockets for the key to his private supply cabinet. He opened the huge oak doors, revealing an entire walk-in closet, with shelves lining all three walls, and went about the buisness of gathereing all sorts of bottles off them, muttering the names as he grabbed them.  
  
"Rakka!" he called. "Get two cauldrons warming up, then come in here and help me with all this will you?"  
  
"Yes, Professor Snape, sir," she called back, humming to herself to calm her nerves as she lit two quick fires under the cauldrons at the first table in the dungeon classroom before wandering into the closet, which was an easy ten feet deep and five or six feet wide.  
  
"There you are," he said, all business, rattling off the names of a few different bottle he would be needing. She grabbed them and followed him back out into the classroom, where he was searching for a book, which he grabbed from the shelves withing a few mere moments of starting his search, thumbing through the pages.  
  
"Alright, I need you to make this," he put the book down on the table, turning it to face Rakka and sliding it over closer to her. "I suggest you arrange your bottle in some sort of order, or you might lose track of what's in it, and what isn't. It's a complicated potion, but I think you can manage. You're one of my best students, you know. I can't think of anyone else better for the job, shy of perhaps Dumbledore.. but his memory is not what it used to be, so I don't even have too much confidence that he could handle it."  
  
Rakka nodded, lining the bottles up, closest to her going first, in order of which they had to be added, while Snape returned to the small library of potion recipes, pulling out another book, which was a bit dustier, before he got to work as well.  
  
Every once in a while, whenever he could spare a moment, Snape would step over toward Rakka to say a few words of encouragement, or remind her to keep an eye on whether or not she was supposed to be letting the potion boil at that particular stage, but she didn't seem to need much help, which was fortunate. By the time the old grandfather clock in the Slytherin common room struck two o'clock in the morning, both potions were finished, and the professor and his assistant were headed up toward the main room, both brandishing large goblets of still steaming potions. Snape handed his over to Madam Pomfrey, telling her when and how much to give to the crying girl, then escorted Rakka over to Sienna's bed, where he calmly instructed his student on how to dose the sleeping potion to the patient.  
  
When all was said and done, Rakka could barely keep her eyes open.  
  
"You did a very good job tonight," Snape gave her a surpsingly honest smile of approval, a rare sight for any of his students, her included. "I'll award you some extra credit points for class, and fifty points to Slytherin for your all night efforts to save your fellow student. Don't bother going to Advanced Healing Potions tomorrow morning, you did more work tonight than they will in class, and you could use some rest."  
  
Rakka smiled wearily at her handsome young instructor, and he gently put one arm around her shoulders, escorting her to the blank stone wall that gaurded the enterance to the Slytherin's dormitories. Rakka turned to thank him, to which he nodded accordingly, and faster than she could say 'firebramble,' he was gone. 


	7. wake up call

A/N: sorry, the delays were awful. working five to six days a week is totally kicking my ass. I give you full permission to do likewise, since i took so long. lol.   
  
oh, yes... and much love goes out to donotsrock, my newest reader, for the review, as well as, of cours, remi and courtney (bloodofthefae). and we all still love Linny and sarah (princessbabe0069) even when they don't review.. *hint hint* lol. ok, yes, on with the show!!  
  
Chapter 7: Wake up call  
  
"Rakka?"   
  
"Rakka!"  
  
"RAKKA! GET UP!" Isamu yelled in Rakka's ear, probably about three and a half hours after Rakka finally got to sleep.  
  
"Uggh. Go away." Rakka muttered back.  
  
"You've got your darling Snapey's class first, wouldn't want to be late!" Isamu drawled in the most disgustingly romanticised way possible, then burst into laughter.  
  
"I don't have to go."  
  
"You don't say?" Isamu sat on the end of the bed. "Special treatment again? Hmm..."  
  
"It's not what you think. I was up half the bloody night with him."  
  
"Oooh!"  
  
"..In the dungeon."  
  
"Rakka! I'm ashamed! How positively kinky of you!"  
  
"Not like that, you idiot! We were making potions!"  
  
"Ohh... is that what they call it these days?"  
  
"......I'm going to kill you."  
  
With that, Rakka took the pillow she'd been attempting to block her ears with, and smacked her cousin square in the face with it.  
  
"Fine, be that way," Isamu huffed.  
  
"You've got a class to get to. Go. Now."  
  
"Hmmph!" Isamu huffed out of the room, and, with a sigh, Rakka fell back into her remaining pillow, and fell back to sleep.  
  
Snape was not suprised when Rakka didn't show up to Advanced Healing Potions. He was a little suprised that she didn't visit him all afternoon, either. It was very unlike her character to not even stop by, either to say hello, or to get her work from that morning's class. In the hallway before the last class of the day, he managed to spot Eana Remillius, a good friend of Rakka's, and one of the few people he ever saw her with in the hallway.  
  
"Miss Remillius," he called her over. At first, she looked started, then nervous, as though she thought she was in trouble.  
  
"I didn't do it this time, I swear, Professor Snapey person," she stumbled.  
  
"Where is Miss Darkflame? I haven't seen her all afternoon, and I wish to speak with her," Snape said, trying not to sound nervous.  
  
"Ohh... you're looking for Rakka, right, lady?"   
  
"Did you just call me a lady?" Snape frowned, a bit puzzled. Remi bit her lip at though thinking, then shook her head quickly.  
  
"Nono. I haven't seen Rakka all day. It's weird," Eana frowned. "It's not like her to skip classes, she's a good little potato. Have you checked the infirmary?"  
  
"Not yet, thank you, Eana," Snape said distractedly, perhaps a bit more confused than he had been at the beginning of the conversation. He had no class to teach right then, so, with his worry increasing, he headed off to the infirmary.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey?" he asked cautiously, standing by the desk at the front door to the school's small magic hospital. "Madam Pomfrey?"  
  
"Yes, yes I'm coming," she muttered, leaving one of the screened off sections of the large room. "Oh, Severus, how are you? I was just administering that potion you and Miss Darkflame made for us the other day to Miss Haridon."  
  
"I'm fine, Madam Pomfrey, I was just looking for a student. I was wondering if she's been in here."  
  
"Well, who are you looking for?"  
  
"Rakka Darkflame."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't seen her since she was here with you last night," Madam Pomfrey frowned.  
  
"Thank you for your time," he smiled curteously. "I've got to be going now. Let me know if you run low on either of those potions, alright?"  
  
"Any time, Severus, my dear," she replied. "I will be needing more of the wormwood potion tomorrow, I should think. There's just enough to get us through one more night."  
  
"Alright, well, I'd best get going. Farewell, Madam Pomfrey," Snape turned on his heel as calmly as he could, returning to his office, still clinging to some lame hope that she would turn up at his door sometime in the night. 


	8. the witching hour

A/N: sorry i took so long to update. next time i put it off for too long, hit me or something!  
  
oh yes, thank you to everyone who reviewed. i'd list everyone, but i have only a few minutes to get to work. youknow who you are.   
  
the long awaited chapter with actual plot! YAY!  
  
ok i'll shut up now.   
  
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Chapter 8: the Witching Hour  
  
The moon had rooted itself firmly halfway through the night sky before there was any stirring in the hall outside Severus' office. He had given up any notions of a visit that evening, and retired to bed a few hours later, when a pounding at his door woke him. With a groan, he climbed from the bed, pulling his trousers back on, not bothering to button his shirt just yet, mainly because he knew if he tried, he would button it wrong and make a complete fool of himself. Trying sleepily to shove his long, bedraggled hair from his face, Severus because mildly aware that the knocking at the door was becoming more persistent, and some notion of dread splashed over his mind, washing the sleep from his consciousness. As he opened the door, he was somewhat confused, and the dread fell over him tenfold. In the doorway, he did not find his favorite little flustered Head Girl, bashfully admitting that there had been some new ruckus in the dormitory, but instead, her younger cousin, devoid of her usual green headband, her dark strawberry blonde hair a bit mussed, barely touching her shoulders with the bottommost bend of the flipped halfcurls that tipped each strand.  
  
"Professor!" Isamu gasped, grabbing his wrist, her emerald eyes sparking with tearstreaked worry. "It's Rakka. I..I went into our room, and she looked like she was still asleep.. So I didn't bother her, figured maybe she wasn't feeling well, still.. until I heard a noise.. she.. she's like that Sienna girl, but worse! There was blood.. all over her pillow.. hurry!"  
  
The panicky girl bit her lip in worry, and Snape hurried down the hall after her.  
  
"I.. I didn't know what to do... I was going to go get Zeke, or Tomas, but I .. I wasn't sure if they could go into the girl's rooms without Rakka or you there.. so I just went to get you.. I..I'm sorry.. Professor.."  
  
As they ran, the girl rambled a little when she could catch her breath, wringing her wrists and biting her knuckles even as they hurried up the stairs toward the stone wall which hid the enterance to the Slytherin main room, then rushed down the echoing, flagstone steps to the bottommost room of the girl's dormitories, accidentally waking up a suprisingly small amount of the sleeping girls as they bolted down the stairs.  
  
When they finally got to the bottom room, Snape didn't even realize that Isamu had remained in the doorway, frozen with fear. He rushed to the side of Rakka's bed, her figure curled up, doubled over in pain,blood soaked deep into her pillow. He gently cupped her chin in his hand and wiped the blood from her lower lip with his thumb, only to see it well up again, slowly, pooling in small divets that betrayed the cause of the bloodshed, lined up in a semicircle of small dents, bite marks, her own attempts to distract herself from the pain, gone amiss when she drew a massive amount of blood, chewing away at her own flesh for the hours of the school day.  
  
"Professor, look out!" Isamu yelled, pointing wildly at the floor between him and her own bed. Snape turned quickly, getting to his feet and grabbing his wand, whirling to aim it at the attacker.  
  
The snake had to be six feet long, a hideous shade of crimson, with dark, purple-black rings around its eyes, which glinted a beady, sickly olive green. It's tail was hooked, flicking, with what looked to be a stinger, the same purple-black of the scales around it's eyes.  
  
"Think you're a scary little bastard, do you? Who sent you here?" Snape narrowed his eyes, glaring at the snake.  
  
"I come to ssserve the Dark Lord..." the snake hissed back, suprisingly speaking the common tongue, which prompted Isamu to scream again, a yelp of horror. "I come to avenge the loss of hisss pride, hisss family, and hisss sservant."  
  
"You did this to her, didn't you? And that poor girl, Sienna, as well! Why, why would even a servant of Voldemort stoop so low as to attack young girls, unprovoked?!"  
  
"They are not worthy of your defenssse, sssir.." Snape could have sworn the snake was grinning. "They are of good sstock, yess.. but they do not dessserve their blood... ssso I am ssent to ruin it.. to take back a pieccce of what belongs to our Lord."   
  
"To take back ....their blood..?" Snape trained off, a bit lost, but not wavering his firm grip on Rakka's wand, even as some primal, choked sob escaped her.  
  
"Ssshe getss what sshe wisshed the masster to feel, yess," the snake crooned. "Now, if you'd jussst let me take thiss one lasst girl...and thosse three boysss... then I'll leave you alone, ssir."  
  
"No," Snape said firmly. "You won't touch her!"  
  
The snake recoiled, but Snape's wand was too fast. A bolt of blue light shot out, catching the writing snake and drawing it up into midair. Then, like sped-up film of a plant growing, the snake became human. Namely, Professor Ganner.  
  
"Mitchell Gannor, tsk tsk," Snape shook his head in shame on Ganner's behalf. "I thought you would know by now, boy. Voldemort doesn't share power, so you should have given up while you were ahead."  
  
"How did you know it was me?" Gannor hissed, pushing his reddish hair back from his face, his green eyes venomous, the purple rings from his sleepless nights spent prowling the girl's dorms more dominant now than they had been during the day, when they had been disguised, no doubt.  
  
"Because I know Voldemort, fool he may be, is too proud to hire a true beast," Snape smirked. "Though a true snake may have served him better than some half wit animagus. I swear, how you managed to pull it off, I will never know. It takes guts to try such idiocy without proper training, but you couldn't be properly trained without having to register, right, Mitch?"  
  
Gannor hissed and spat, tring to turn back to a snake, but only managing fangs and a puffed face, scales around his mouth, and the smallest little bit of a tail, which was barely more than a stinger sticking out of his trousers, but managed to regain his footing and pull his wand out from his belt, and yelled at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Exsspelliarmuss!"  
  
Snape skidded backward, crounching with one hand on the cobblestone, snatching his wand back up, but Gannor already had one hand on Isamu's wrist, pinning her arm back against the wall, her hand barely still clutching her wand, his wand poking her throat.  
  
"Take one sstep, Sseveruss, and I'll use an unforgiveable," Gannor smirked. "Now drop the wand."  
  
Defeated, Severus let go of his wand, which hit the floor with a slight 'clink'.  
  
"Now, your turn, ssweetheart," he smiled wickedly at Isamu, who still gripped her wand, her knuckles white. He slammed her hand back against the wall and she cried out, finally dropping it as blood trickled down her wrist. Severus caught more movement from Rakka's bed as he inched toward his wand a little, praying that he could get her out before it was too late, but Gannor turned back to him too quickly.  
  
"Crucccio!"  
  
"Expelliarmus!"   
  
The blankets flew back off Rakka's bed as Eana Remillius, her ears still furry and sticking out a little higher than they should have been, held her wand out firmly with a hand that had only just began to reform from a paw, still adorned with brown fox fur and black claw nails, which steadily melted away as she stood her ground, unmoving, and Snape, still blind with pain, was barely able to grasp his own wand. Isamu dove, grabbing her own wand and Gannors, smirking at him a little. He hissed at her, trying to transform back into his snake form, when Snape got back to his feet.  
  
"Hmm.. that's enough, old boy," Snape said with more venom than the half-transformed man in front of him. " Petrificus totalus!"  
  
Gannor lunged... and fell flat forward, frozen stiff, limbs glued to his sides.  
  
"Sorry I took so long, Professor," Remi climbed out of the bed. "I was hiding under the bed in my fox form and had a hell of a time trying to change back under the covers where he couldn't see me.. Rakka kept kicking me and hitting me.. had some issues concentrating."  
  
"Thanks for the daring rescue, miss Remillus, not a moment too soon," he nodded as Remi took Gannor's wand from Isamu, snapping it with a satisfying crack over her knee.  
  
"Eana!" Snape turned to the doorway as he reached to pull Rakka into his arms. "Go get Dumbledore. I'm bringing Rakka to the infirmary. Professor Flitwick, I think, already taught you how to get this bumbling idiot to Dumbledore, right, Isamu? Follow Eana with him."  
  
Isamu and Remi nodded as Snape hurried past them, Rakka gripped tightly to his chest. Her witch fever felt like a fresh kettle of tea was being shoved against his bare skin, and that which was covered wasn't faring much better.  
  
"P...professor...Snape.." she murmured, looking up at him, shaking violently, the blood making her lips that much brighter against her skin, usually somewhat pale, now ghostly. Her eyes were watery, and a few tears flowed free of her damp eyelashes. "I'm.. so sorry.. to.. trouble you.."  
  
"Shh," he murmured, running up the stairs. "Don't you worry now. We're almost there."  
  
"It.. it hurts, I.... I can't..." with a bit of effort, she pulled one shaky hand from her abdomen, the nails and fingertips tinged red, and managed to get a shaky grip on his shirt's collar, resting her head against him as she shuddered, curling up. "I'm sorry.. I... it's all my fault.. should've seen it.."  
  
"Madam Pomfrey!" Snape hollered, running into the infirmary, setting Rakka down gently on the nearest bed. "Poppy! Help!"  
  
"What is it, Severus, child?" Madam Pomfrey asked, somewhat sleepily, reutrning from her adjoining chambers. "Oh my.."  
  
"Get her some of the aconite potion, to ease the pain," Snape said firmly, wiping the hair away from Rakka's face, which was damp with tears and a few smears of blood, as she forced her hand to release his shirt collar,with some effort, and tried to force her body against the convulsions that pulled all her muscles inward. She yelped in pain, panting and whimpering, and Severus murmured small comforts, holding her hand, though she clenched it so hard he thought his own would break.  
  
"Rakka, listen to me, hold on, please, its ok," he pleaded. She cried out, tears spilling, shaking her head in a panic.  
  
"No.. I can't, no.."  
  
She looked up at him, tears pouring down her cheeks, and Severus kissed her, hard, stunning her back to her normal self for a moment as his mouth filled with the bittersweet taste of her blood. He wiped her lip with his thumb and wiped his own mouth with the back of his hand.  
  
"You have to. Just please, try to hold on, okay?" he smiled weakly, and she did the same before her face tightened with pure agony again.  
  
It was then that Severus Snape realized that Rakka was suffering far worse than Sienna had.  
  
He flashed back to Sienna's bite marks, two small, clean holes on the back of her neck, each ringed in purple, the evidence in it's entirety small enough to be hidden under a single finger. He looked down at Rakka, who was struggling for self control, with two much larger fang marks, though spaced just as close together, a bit torn, as though she tried to fight the snake off before he decided he was finished. The purple mark around it was like a large, grotesque bruise, a bit sickly green around its edges, no doubt evidence of how much more poision had seeped into poor Rakka. No wonder she had bitten her lip so deeply. The pain had to be Sienna's own, tenfold.  
  
"I've got it," Madam Pomfrey approached Snape from behind, her words finally giving him some relief. "If you could restrain her.. we don't have much left, we can't afford to spill any."  
  
"Rakka, it's alright," Severus cooed. "Just give me your hand."  
  
"No, please it hurts! Nononono.." she moaned, and he grabbed her wrists, pinning them sucessfully on both sides of her head. She flailed, kicking out a bit, then curling up with a shudder. Taking advantage of her pause, Madam Pomfrey jammed her spoon in the girls mouth. Within a few short minutes, Rakka was lying flat, unable to move much,between the numbness and her own groggyness.  
  
"Sweet Merlin," Severus and Madam Pomfrey gasped each in turn. When Rakka's hand finally fell away, they realized just how badly she had hurt herself, deep scratches all over her midsection, her shirt torn open, soaked with blood, the buttons ripped off. If Isamu had slept through the night, Rakka may not have been alive the next morning; even if she had survived the poison, she might not have survived her own attacks on herself.  
  
"I'll get her bandaged up," Madam Pomfrey murmured. "You go off to bed, Professor."  
  
"In a moment," he nodded, and she went off to fetch some bandages.  
  
Severus realized he was still holding her hand, but didn't let go.  
  
"Don't you give up on me," he said softly. "I'll find a way to fix you. Don't you worry."  
  
He looked back up at Rakka's face. She was fast asleep. With a heavy sigh, he kissed her softly on her forehead, and let go of her hand, heading off to Dumbledore's office. 


	9. all's well that mends well

Chapter 9: All's Well that Mends Well  
  
"Rakka!" Remi's voice squealed excitedly. "You're awake!"  
  
"Remi?" Rakka asked, a bit groggy. "Where am I?"  
  
"Oh my gosh, Rakka, you've been asleep for two weeks, you silly chicken!" Remi smiled. "We were worriededed!! Took a long time for that poison to get out of your system, yupyup. Madam Pomfrey said that if Professor Snapey person hadn't been able to make that antidote on time, you would have been a goner."  
  
"Antidote?" Rakka frowned, her memory stil a bit hazy.  
  
"The snake that bit you, duh," Remi laughed. "You silly, silly chicken! Hehe."  
  
"Oh thank God," Rakka sighed with relief, sitting back. "They found him."  
  
"Yeah. It only got you and Sienna. Two little potatoes got bit. Yupyup," Remi nodded, pushing back her thick, dark, earlobe length hair. "Snapey lady beat him up, yupyup. That stupid snake bit you bad. Looks like it hurt. Ouch ouch!"  
  
"It's ok," Rakka pushed down the bandage on her collarbone, seeing two dark purple bruises, which were already paling around the edges, the fang marks beginning to fade from wounds to scars.  
  
"Oh, hey hey hey hey guess what?" Remi giggled. "I made the register."  
  
"You did?" Rakka smiled. Remi's biggest dream seemed to have come true. She was beaming.  
  
"Yep! I'm a certified animagi lady person now! I mastered my fox form."  
  
"That's great."  
  
"Oh, and Isamu did great on Flitwick's exam," Remi added. "Extra practice with frozen snakes. We all got alot of practice that night, yupyup."  
  
"Well, as long as something good came out of the whole ordeal."  
  
"Listen... I know you like professor Snape," Remi said quietly, talking, for once, like a normal human being, which meant she had something seriously important to say. Rakka's cheeks turned as crimson as a Gryffindor's Quidditch robe.  
  
"Ok, so .. maybe I kinda do. So what?"  
  
"I just wanted to tell you.. he was really worried about you. More than any teacher should be about any student."  
  
"Well, few teachers have to cope with a student nearly dying in their arms, and in his first year teaching, no less."  
  
"Before that," she sighed. "When you were missing all day. He was stressing out. Said he had to talk to you. And the whole time you were in here.. he came to visit you, at least once a day. He was actually late to his own class, our class, because he was up here with you. He was so afraid that you weren't going to pull through.. he blames himself, but I don't know why. It had nothing to do with him, except that he saved you, and he got attacked with an unforgiveable in the process. I caught him in here quite a few times.. he didn't know anyone was watching.. when there was no one else around, he would always kiss your forehead or your hand before he left."  
  
"Hmm," Rakka murmured. "Do you think Madam Pomfrey will let me out today?"  
  
"Well, if I were her, I would want you out of here ASAP," Remi laughed. "You draw a big crowd of crazy chickens after you. Crazy ladies like Zeke have been visiting you this whole time."  
  
Rakka shook her head, knowing that if Zeke was in earshot, he would have tackled her for calling him a lady again.  
  
"Madam Pomfrey!" Remi turned and called. "She's up!"  
  
"Finally," Madam Pomfrey sighed, walking up behind Rakka's childhood pal. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Perfectly fine," Rakka shrugged. "Like I just got a good night's rest. This much energy in an infirmary can't be any good."  
  
"I see," Madam Pomfrey raised one eyebrow. "If I let you out now.. do you promise to be back here after lunch?"  
  
"Yes, Madam!" Rakka smiled. Remi handed Rakka a clean uniform and stepped outside of the screen so she could get dressed. Happy just to be alive, Rakka hooked elbows with Remi, and they laughed the whole way to Advanced Healing Potions. 


	10. now for something completely different

nikki A/N: I'm a terrible, evil person for depriving you for this long. I just only recently got a computer that will allow me to update, you see, and I've been so distracted breaking it in that I'd nearly forgotten how long you've been without.. and alas, for a bit longer, you'll be without any real plot, as I came to three sudden realizations a week ago: 1- the story is short, and doesn't have much interaction with the Darkflame clan, who I spent so much time developing in my head and in side projects that got flushed, 2- the plot moves too sodding fast, and 3- this just doesn't feel  
  
enough like a J.K. Rowling fanfiction without, you guessed, it, a chapter of completely random Quidditch that does nothing for the plot save for a little character development and putting some meat on the bones of the story.  
  
And thanks to Remi and Linny for that fun brainstorming session when I needed to name Ms. Chang, who can either be a significantly older sister or a young aunt to Cho, it's all in your heads, folks. I didn't like Cho enough to go back and see if her family was ever mentioned. dodges rotten fruit and to think, I was sorted into Ravenclaw on the Hogwarts RPG board... go figure..  
  
So without further adeau, let's toss some quaffle!  
  
chapter 10: Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw, Quidditch Cup Finals  
  
"Remember, watch out for Sarah Bones, the Seeker. She's the only really good player on the team. Ignore everyone else, really. Just make sure she doesn't get the Snitch, Rakka," Tomas ordered.  
  
"Don't sweat it, Tomas," Rakka winked, tightening her arm guards. "She's new. She didn't watch much Quidditch last year. She doesn't know how to play against Slytherins, especially not us."  
  
"Nice to see that our favorite seeker managed to revive before the Cup," Zeke smiled, seeing Rakka flip her hair out of the neck of her robes before tying it in a loose braid.  
  
"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world. Ravenclaw is going down," Rakka smirked, grabbing her broom. "Ready?"  
  
"Waiting for you, kid," Tomas stood, broom in hand. Remi and Isamu stood to his left, and Jakob and Michael to Tomas' right.  
  
"Let's go kick some ass," Rakka grinned, following them out onto the field.  
  
"Here comes Slytherin," Joseph Samus, the fourth year Hufflepuff that was commentating this year's games, announced. "We've got the captain, Tomas Darkflame, Keeper, his brother, Zekiel, Beater, and back for the first game since Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff, the last piece of the Terrible Trio, Rakka, who will be today's Seeker. With her is Eana Remillus, the Slytherin Banshee, who is a Chaser, along with the two chasers new to this year, the cousins of the Darkflame triplets, Michael 'Green Wind' Swindler, the fastest Chaser in Hogwarts, and Isamu Perellfoot, the Demoness herself, who has the record for most injuries caused to other players by a Chaser in one season, before the season is even over. And of course, last but certainly not least, Zeke's parter in crime, Beater Jakob Stormcrow."  
  
Rakka circled the field, hearing the roar of the Slytherin stands going berserk. The Hufflepuffs were cheering for Slytherin as well, while Gryffindor booed them nearly as loudly as Ravenclaw did, Eana circling as closely to the Gryffindor stands as she could, baring her teeth and sticking her tongue out at the students, cackling maniacally. One thing was for sure: put Eana Remillius in Quidditch robes, and she isn't Remi anymore. She really is the Slytherin Banshee.  
  
"And now, here comes Ravenclaw! Captain Marisha Chang, Chaser, and her two Chaser companions: Wilhemina and Sam Angelline."  
  
Marisha her hair tied back in several small braids, tried her damnedest to look menacing as she circled in, the blonde brother and sister team of Wilhemina and Sam right behind her.  
  
"Behind them are Beaters James Whimbledon and Mark Boot, Seeker Sarah Bones, and Nathaniel Turpin, Keeper."  
  
Whimbledon and Boot looked like they could have been brothers, the same thick build, sandy brown hair, and dark eyes. Sarah Bones was a very thin girl, seeming rather fragile and out of place, though she did seem very quick and agile, good for a Seeker. Nate Turpin was a similar build to Tomas and Zeke, sort of wiry and thin, but not at all gaunt or frail. Both teams fell into line as Madam Hooch opened the box and let loose the Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch.  
  
Rakka shot straight up, circling the field like a hawk, only to see Sarah doing the same, glancing between the field and Rakka, looking for any signs that Rakka might have spotted the Snitch. Taking the opportunity, Rakka glanced over at Zeke, who looked back up at her. Grinning, Rakka started diving toward him.  
  
"And it looks like Rakka has spotted the Snitch! She's in a steep dive... if she's not careful, she's going to splatter on the ground, and Slytherin can't afford to lose her again, not with Bones on the field.."  
  
Seeing Rakka dive, Sarah followed. Rakka pressed herself tightly against the broom, trying to go faster, chancing a glace at Zeke, who was looking away, grinning. Rakka knew exactly what he was looking at, and pressed on, not caring how close she was to the ground, just determined to get a firm lead on Sarah, who was fast, but not fast enough. Two loud thuds later, Rakka pulled out of her dive inches from the ground.  
  
"And Zeke Darkflame's well aimed Bludger has knocked Sarah Bones clean off of her broom! It was a feint! Rakka did not find the Snitch!"  
  
No sooner were the words out of Joseph's mouth than a gold blur buzzed by Rakka's face. Instinctively, she reached up to swat it away, only to realize it was the Snitch, and clasp her fingers around one buzzing wing. Sarah Bones hadn't even been taken off the field yet, and the game was over.  
  
"No, wait... Rakka has the Snitch! Slytherin has won the Cup, the final victory for the Terrible Trio, the Banshee, and Stormcrow, and the first Cup win for the Demoness and the Green Wind! What a great finish!"  
  
Rakka landed, handing the Snitch to Madam Hooch before getting tackled by Zeke.  
  
"You did it, you crazy kid!" Zeke grinned, kissing her cheek so hard it hurt.  
  
"Hey, ease up, spaz," she smirked. "I couldn't have done it without you, pal. Thanks for taking care of Bones for me."  
  
"Hey, that's what Beaters are for, right?" he grinned. "Thanks for passing me that Bludger back there, Jakob."  
  
"Hey, I'm here for you, Zeke," Jakob grinned, landing next to them. Isamu landed next to him, dropping her broom and catching Rakka in a strangling hug.  
  
"We won! You did it, we won!" Isamu cried joyously (and rather loudly) in Rakka's ear, then turned to hug Remi, who was squealing at a similar volume.  
  
"You slimy gits!" Marisha Chang growled, storming over in a whirlwind of blue robes and pure anger. "You underhanded, sneaky little.. snake!"  
  
"Is there a problem, Miss Chang?" Tomas stepped forward.  
  
"That was a dirty trick, you nasty little skank!" Marisha raged, shoving Tomas aside.  
  
"Hey, we won, fair and square, so bugger off!" Zeke growled back, Rakka stepping in front of him defensively. Marisha stormed up until she was only a few feet away, only to find herself blocked by a broom held firmly in front of her, hitting her hip hard when she walked into it.  
  
"I think that's enough, Miss Chang," Rakka said quietly, holding her broom steady.  
  
"Get out of my way," Marisha hissed.  
  
"That's enough, Miss Chang," Rakka said again, a little louder, in a warning tone.  
  
"Get out of my way, Rakka, I've got a score to settle with your charming brother," Marisha grabbed the broom as though to push it aside, only to have Rakka grab her shoulder tightly, bordering on painful.  
  
"Watch your head," Rakka said quietly. Marisha didn't have time to contemplate what Rakka meant before a stray bludger connected with the back of her head, sending her over Rakka's broom like a limp doll. Rakka caught the girl by her shoulders, lowering her to the ground and standing beside the unconscious Ravenclaw captain, suppressing a smirk.  
  
"Oh, my," Madam Hooch sighed. "It looks like I didn't manage to get that bludger back fast enough. We'll have to get Madam Pomfrey to take a look at her. Come on, kids, clear out, give her some room." As Madam Hooch signaled to have Marisha taken off the field on a stretcher, Dumbledore came off of the field, Cup in hand, Professor Snape and two women with cameras right behind him.  
  
"Great job," Snape smiled almost hesitantly, glancing from one teammate to another until he had given a smile to every member, save for the one that pounced, catching him in a strangle hug as the flashbulbs began a thorough blinding of the weary team.  
  
"We won, Snapey lady!" Remi grinned, squeezing the life out of the teacher. "Aren't you proud of us?"  
  
"Yes, very much so, Miss Remillius," Snape smiled a little when she finally let go, opting to strangle Jackob next, as he turned a bit red in the ears, not so much from the death hug as from who was delivering it. Rakka cast a sidelong glance at Snape, then looked over at Isamu, knowing she was busted. Isamu winked back, as if to say the secret was still safe with her.  
  
"Can I get a picture of all of you together, here, Professor in the middle, guys in back, girls in front," the photographer gestured. "Yes, yes, that's it. How about with the Seeker in the middle, too.. yes, that's it, now smile, everyone!"  
  
Several further flashbulbs later, the group dispersed as much as was necessary for personal space, but Rakka found herself still standing beside Severus.  
  
"You were wonderful out there, Miss Darkflame," Severus said in a cool, conversational tone. Rakka came to the realization that when all eyes had been on her during the game, his had been as well. She looked down, willing herself not to blush.  
  
"Thank you, professor, your opinion is greatly appreciated," Rakka said calmly. "Wow.. I sound like an ass, don't I?"  
  
"Of course not, Miss Darkflame, that was a very professional, courteous answer," Severus choked down a chuckle.  
  
"Hell with professional courtesy, I'm seventeen, I should act like it," Rakka muttered to herself. At this, Severus couldn't hold back his laughter.  
  
"What makes you say that?" Severus asked softly. "I mean, what's wrong with being mature?"  
  
"It's no fun," Rakka smiled a little. "And it scares people off."  
  
"It doesn't scare me off," Severus said softly, immediately regretting it. He had probably just creeped her out, and now she would never be able to talk to him the same. If only he could have held back for a couple more weeks, until she was leaving...  
  
"Well, you're the first guy I haven't accidentally tricked into thinking I'm lacking a soul," Rakka actually managed eye contact for a moment, then broke it off again, losing an uphill battle with the uncomfortable heat rising up her neck and down her arms.  
  
"Then maybe I'm the first guy you've talked to that has half a brain," he shrugged. Rakka smiled at that, looking back up at him for a moment before the quiet was interrupted by Zeke cursing loudly, as though he'd put a Sonorus charm on himself.  
  
"You sodding brat! I swear, one of these days, I'll tear your damned tongue out!"  
  
"LAAADIEEEE!" Remi squealed, giggling uncontrollably.  
  
"Those two are hopeless," Rakka didn't even realize that Snape had echoed her same sighing statement until Isamu and Jakob burst out laughing. 


	11. Farewell to Hogwarts

A/N: I fear that 'Exodus' is nearly to a close.. we are about to start chapter 11 of a 12 chapter story.. but never fear! There will be a sequel! With Ron, Hermione, Draco, and more of the Darkflame clan causing utter havoc at Hogwarts! ...that is, if I can find the plot... hehe.... dodges rotten tomatoes well, on with the story! (I say it like you people actually read this, anyway.. :P )  
  
Chapter 11: Farewell to Hogwarts  
  
"Well, this is the end," Remi shook her head. "Tomorrow morning, we graduate."  
  
Eana Remillius was sitting at the foot of Rakka's bed, in the bottommost chamber of the Slytherin Girls' dormitories. Remi's own room was just a few steps up the flagstone, a journey she was not yet ready to make for the night. Rakka sat back against the headboard of the four post bed, looking a bit lost in thought as she ran her fingers carefully along the edge of a photograph, Isamu, Remi, Tomas, Jakob, Zeke, Michael, and herself, all laughing and cheering, holding the Quidditch Cup. She put the photograph in the back of the small pile, carefully flicking through the images. The next one was of her with the golden snitch, as she ended the last game, against Ravenclaw, which won the cup. The next photo, herself with the team, and Snape and Dumbledore, all smiling, waving, as Dumbledore held out the Cup to them. With a sigh, Rakka put the photographs aside, turning to Remi.  
  
"Oh, Rem, what am I going to do?" she muttered.  
  
"Well, if I were you, I'd be off confessing my deepest desires to Snapey person. Bwahahahaa!"  
  
"No, if you were me, you would be sitting here, not knowing what to do either, and you know it."  
  
"Eeek! Okay, so maybe you're right. I'm not that much of a take-charge person, I admit it. But I always thought you were. Really, I think you should tell him. I mean it's pretty obvious that he likes you, too."  
  
"But I'm still a student, and he's still a teacher. What if.. what if he tells me he doesn't love me, just because he can't do anything about it?"  
  
"Well... you know," Isamu chimed in from the next bed over, where she was writing in her journal. "After tomorrow's graduation service, you won't be a student anymore.. and you'll still be here... I dunno. Just a thought..."  
  
"You're a terrible influence, you know that?" Rakka smiled. "You and Remi both. Trying to hook me up.. with a teacher, for cryin' out loud."  
  
"Well... love comes in many forms, hon. You gotta do what it takes to get it, yupyup," Remi smiled, stretching.  
  
"Maybe you're right."  
  
"Well, I'd best be off, before the Head Girl catches me out of bed too late," Remi laughed. "Bye! See you in the morning!"  
  
"Bye," Rakka laughed, shaking her head. That Remi.. she really was a nutter, even if the teachers all thought she was a quiet, well mannered little girl. They should know by now, they've all seen her true colors on the Quidditch field, screaming and doing loops in midair on her trusty old broom to distract her opponents while Isamu went for the Quaffle, a real stuntgirl, out of control. They didn't call her 'the Slytherin Banshee' for nothing.  
  
With that, Rakka drifted into a night of sleep stuffed to the brim with dreams, every possible outcome to confessing her love to Snape. When she woke the next morning, she wasn't feeling any less nervous, but had made up her mind. She had to talk to him.  
  
Snape watched the graduation services for the seventh year students with a heavy heart. Many of his most beloved students, all filing up to the main table in the great hall, to recieve their diplomas from Dumbledore. They moved from the teacher's left to right, starting with Hufflepuff, then Gryffindor, then Ravenclaw, and Finally Slytherin, which was proeceeded by a short speech from Dumbledore, as with each other house.  
  
"It was a good year to be a Slytherin, I suppose, this year," Dumbledore smiled, as the applause for the Ravenclaw graduates died down. "With the winning of the Quidditch and House Cups, and that astounding ordeal with that lowdown snake Gannor. Before we commence with the handing out of the diplomas to the final house, I would like to congratulate Professor Severus Snape, for his courage under fire, and for sending his students to deliver that lousy, good for nothing Death Eater to my doorstep in a nice, full body freeze," he gestured for Snape to stand up, as he had at the beginning of the year, when he was introducing the new teacher.  
  
The whole hall errupted into applause as Snape stood up, turning a bit red, but none clapped louder than Slytherin.  
  
"Quite an amazing first year for you, I should think, Professor," Dumbledore smiled. "And to all the Slytherin house, congratulations, for this year, graduation is bittersweet. In this house alone, we lose the best Head Girl and Head Boy we've had in years, and a darned good lot of a Quidditch team as well. But yes, I have already wasted precious time, for the final moments of your seven years here grow thin. Congratulations, Slytherins! May the graduation ceremonies carry on."  
  
One by one, the graduates of Slytherin moved to the table as their names were called, in alphabetical order by last name, save for Tomas and Rakka, who would go last, as Head Boy and Head Girl.  
  
After Dubledore handed each student their diplomas, and any additional certificates for any special efforts during their years at Hogwarts, Snape shook their hands with a heavy heart, sad to see most of them leave. A few of the students, overcome with emotion, hugged the bewildered young professor, or smiled a thank you to him.  
  
"Thanks, Professor," Zeke smiled. "For everything. I owe my sister's life to you. I'll never forget that."  
  
"It was the least I could do," Snape shrugged, shaking the crazy young man's hand for the last time.   
  
A few moments later, Eana smiled, approaching him.  
  
"It's been a good year, Professor Snapey person," she hugged him. "I'll miss you."  
  
"Feel free to come back and visit, ok, Eana?"  
  
"Please, call me Remi, everyone else does," Eana smiled, pushing her hair back.   
  
"Ok then, Remi, call me Severus," he smiled.  
  
"Okaykay. Goodbye, lady." With that, she planted a big, rediculous, childish kiss on his cheek and giggled, seeing his confusion, and ran off, Jackob approaching as she walked away.  
  
"Well, Professor," Jakob shook Snape's hand firmly. "It's been a good year."  
  
"Yes it has, Mr. Stormcrow," Snape nodded.  
  
"Look... Rakka is like a sister to me, so I want you to know.. well, I'm sure Zeke already gave you the speech, but.. thank you."  
  
"It was my honor to have the opportunity to help her," Snape smiled. "And it was my duty as your head of house. Please, no need to make it seem like heroics."  
  
"Well, regardless, you're still a hero to me," Jakob smiled, walking away.  
  
At last, the procession was coming to a close, when Tomas was called up.  
  
"Tomas, I have to thank you for your help this year," Snape smiled, shaking Tomas' hand. "You and Rakka handled that situation with Sienna beautifully."  
  
"You saved my little sister," Tomas smiled back. "You handled that situation well. And I think you may have saved us all, Snape. I know the snake was there that night for my little cousin, and probably would have gone after me or Zeke next. I think it's safe to say the whole family is in your debt, Professor."  
  
"Call me Severus," Snape smiled. "After all, you're not a student anymore, are you?"  
  
"No," Tomas smiled wistfully. "I guess not. Goodbye, Severus."  
  
"And, last but certainly not least, Head Girl Rakka Darkflame," Dumbledore smiled, handing her certificate to her. Rakka took it graciously, smiling at the old man, while the audience of students gave a loud cheer, loudest at the Slytherin table, of course.  
  
"Rakka," Snape smiled, as she hugged him.  
  
"Professor, I'd like to talk to you tonight, before I leave," she whispered in his ear, hugging him firmly, friendly, but nothing more, just as Remi had. "I'll see you in your office, after the feast, okay?"  
  
"No problem, Rakka," he smiled. "But please, don't call me Professor. Call me Severus, after all, you're not a student, you're an equal now, right?"  
  
"Yeah," she smiled, as much with her eyes as her mouth, the kind of glittering smile that could melt the heart out of the Bloody Baron himself. With that, Rakka ran off to join her classmates, Remi, Jakob, Zeke, Tomas, Michael, and Isamu all getting to their feet to hug her, the Quidditch team of buddies united for one last banquet.   
  
"Look at us," Tomas shook his head. "We're graduates! Done. Finished. No more Hogwarts."  
  
"Yeah, and Remi finally learned something that proved useful.. even if it was only once," Zeke grinned.  
  
"Hey, lady! I'm useful!"  
  
"Yeah, about as useful as a potato for a wand when dueling against a Death Eater... Hey, wait a minute! Did you just call me a lady?!" he slammed one hand down on the table, his other hand pointing an accusing finger.  
  
"What's it to ya, laaadiiieeee?" Remi stuck her tongue out, and Zeke stood up. He grabbed her by the front of her robes, but she grinned, shrinking rapidly. Bewildered, Zeke let go.. and a little brown fox ran off under the Raveclaw table.  
  
"I can't belive they're letting those two out into the real world," Jakob shook his head.  
  
"Zeke is your friend, you try knocking some sense into him," Rakka smirked. "And if not, bludgeoning him a bit couldn't hurt. It's not like he's got any brain cells to lose."  
  
"Okay, rewind, replace 'Zeke' with 'Remi', and you have my response," Jakob shook his head.  
  
"But you're the beater, not me. We all know seekers aren't built for knocking sense into people," Rakka grinned. Jakob snarled jokingly.  
  
"I can't belive they're letting those two out into the real world, either," Isamu said solemnly to Tomas, shaking her head.  
  
"Oh, you're one to talk!" Rakka, Zeke, and Jakob chorused at once.  
  
"What?" Isamu asked innocently. "No one is letting me loose on the poor inhabitants of the world, are they?"  
  
"For summer holiday. More than enough time for someone as psychotic as the midget to cause worldwide havoc," Zeke shook his head.  
  
"I concur," Remi scratched behind her ear with her foot as she changed back to her human self, which looked more than a bit comical, and Remi turned the slightest bit pink as she straightened her skirt.  
  
"You don't even know what the word 'concur' means," Zeke sneered.  
  
"Oh, do shut up, Zeke," Rakka sighed.  
  
"I do so know what it means!"  
  
"Well? I'm listening."  
  
"..shut up, you silly potato-headed git!"  
  
"Oh, so now I'm a potato-headed git, am I?!"  
  
"Both of you, just shut up and eat!" Tomas shook his head in disgust, and Remi and Zeke both looked down at the table, realizing only then that there was food, and dove into it without any reservation or dignity whatsoever. Isamu giggled, and Rakka, who had been carefully picking at her food as though it might bite her back, slapped her forehead in frustration.  
  
The feast continued all around them, a huge party in which all the houses celebrated, together, many for the last time. 


	12. Confession

**A/N: I hate my computer. Happy birthday, Linny.. assuming i get get this to work before your next birthday.. lol**

**Chapter 12: Confession**

That evening, Severus was sitting at his desk, filing away his paperwork. The next afternoon, he would catch the last Hogwart's Express ride out, to his summer home in Hogsmeade, where several other teachers would be staying as well.

"Severus?" there was a light knock at the door.

"Come in, Rakka," he called back. The heavy old door creaked open.

She was out of uniform, for only the third time he had seen her that way, the second time that didn't involve her bleeding all over herself. She wore a long, black skirt, and a black shirt that zipped up the front, just high enough to sustain a classy look, not high enough to make it look like something from Professor McGonagall's closet. On the bare skin just above where the shirt parted, she wore her grandmother's necklace, and above it, her belt collar, as always. She walked up to the desk, reaching into her small black bag with the green and white Slytherin emblem on the front, pulling out a green and white scarf.

"I started this over Christmas break," she said softly, putting it on the desk. "I'm not that great with knitting, so it took awhile, and I'm afraid it's a bit out of season now, but perhaps you could wear it next winter. You wear so much black, Severus, you could do with a little Slytherin colors."

Severus smiled, picking up the soft scarf. "I love it. Thank you. I'd wear it now, but I might die of heatstroke."

Rakka laughed, then looked at the floor, seeming the most nervous he had ever seen her.

"Rakka, is there something wrong?"

"Professor, I.. I feel like there are some things about me, about my family, that you should know," she said softly, sitting down in the thick leather chair across from the desk.

"Go on," he said calmly, though a bit worried.

"I.. you have a right to know.. after all, secrets can only be kept so long, and when there are lives at stake.. we never thought it would come to this.. but after Gannor... I'm not so sure.."

Snape moved, sitting on the front of his desk instead of behind it, afraid to miss something important in her murmuring.

"I... I talked to Tomas and Zeke, and Isamu and Michael.. we all agreed it would be for the best.. Michael even talked to Bill and Charlie.. they agreed, too.."

"Bill and Charlie Weasely? From Gryffindor?"

"Yeah. They're cousins of ours, the only ones not in Slytherin. Ok, well, sitting here beating around the bush isn't helping. I might as well be out with it."

"Ok, go on, I'm listening," Severus nodded. Rakka took a deep breath.

"You know my mother and Aunt Trista, and no doubt their little sister, Aunt Molly, and perhaps you know Aunt Ghendra, she's a few years older, married to Kurt Swinder, they're Michael's parents.. he was quite disappointed when he learned we were related," she chuckled slightly. "They're all sisters, of course. Grandma and Grandpa Argent only had girls, as far as everyone else knew. They had one son, but he was a jerk, Balsur Argent. He was their first child, and the only one that didn't use magic, but only because he didn't want to. He wanted nothing to do with the family, since we had magic. Off and married some woman named Lanelle."

"He changed his last name before he married her, not wanting anyone to ever learn that he was from a magical family. They had a son, and they named him Tom. Tom M. Riddle."

Snape's heart stopped, then jumpstarted itself at a furious pound. "Tom Riddle?" he choked. "_The_ Tom Riddle?"

"Tom, the one and only. He wanted us to call him 'Voldy.' It never took, you see, since we didn't see him."

Severus sat back a little on his desk, still in shock.

"When Grandpa Argent first married Grandma, he didn't have much faith in our kind, really, just like his son, but he ended up getting over his fear of wizards when he realized he partially to blame for the magic in his children's veins.. he was of a long line of squibs. There hadn't been any of them able to use magic for so long, they never mentioned it to him as a child, not wanting to get his hopes up. Grandma was from a long line of wizards, and all his children were witches and a wizard, and good ones at that - save for Uncle Balsur, who refused to even see if he could work magic - and so was the next generation. Well, by 'good' I guess I really meant powerful.. since Tom was anything but good..."

She shuddered, then looked up at Snape.

"When Uncle Balsur denied his family, we denied him as well. And then he left his own son in the end, as he had left the rest of us, for being a wizard. A bit of a dirtbag, Uncle Balsur was, so we never admitted to him. Grandma pitied her grandson, feeling terrible that her son had abandoned his own blood, when he was likely the cause of the magic in the boy's blood. Mother felt bad, too, and offered to take him from his mother, to raise him with the rest of us, but he... he was terrible, a smug little fiend. When he... he killed my father, when he refused to join him... but Grandma was a tough old bird, and threw him out of the family for good. I was at Hogwarts at the time. When my father died. We all were here, save for my littlest sister, Rhiannon, who was but a month or two from being born, and our younger cousins. It was my third year. To come home on Christmas break.. and find out my father had died... mother wouldn't tell us how it happened. She didn't want Zeke or Tomas or Zackary, who was a seventh year at the time, to go off and do something stupid.."

Severus rested a hand gently on Rakka's shoulder.

"We didn't find out until after mother died, complications when she was giving birth to Rhia, most likely a time delayed curse intended to kill mother without harming Rhia. It was then that Tom started with the letters.

"Owl post, every week. Asking us all how we were, saying he had heard about mother's death. He offered to take care of us, said he owed it to our parents. Grandma threw a fit, she was watching us, with some help from the Potters, who had only been out of school a year or two. they lived near us, Mrs. Potter had a little boy about the same time mother had died, and helped us take care of Rhia.

"We never wrote back to Tom, and it was a good thing we didn't, because Grandma told us what he had done, how he had killed our father. Zackary and Eve tried to find him, but it was no good. We couldn't track him down.. not until the night he killed the Potters. The only survivor was their son.. but I'm sure you knew that. What many people don't know is that we think that.. the reason he tried to kill him.. was because he thought little Harry Potter was our brother. See, he never knew whether Rhia had been a boy or a girl, but he did know from one of his spies that the Potters were helping to raise our little sibling, and when Grandma refused to let him take us and twist us into his own evil children, Tom had a fit and since has been after the whole family, at first with an emphasis on Rhia, who he had apparently spared before her birth so that he could mold her mind by his own hands. Besides, if you know about the old prophesy, you know that Voldemort went after Potter, supposedly, because he was the child of parents who had stood against him three times... well, mom and dad fit the category as well. Two birds with one stone, I guess he had assumed. The death of the Potters is a great pain to the hearts of our whole family. It has been for the past four years. Our family, Harry's godfather, Sirius, we all tried to take him in, it was the least we could do, but Dumbledore insisted on sending him to live with his Muggle relatives. Perhaps it was all for the best.

"The same night Tom.. Voldemort.. call him what you will, the night he killed the Potters, he had also killed Grandma and Aunt Trista and her husband, all of whom had been protecting us, and little Isamu. He took off to the Potters' when he realized Rhia wasn't there... if only he had tried to hurt us before he left, one of us would bear the burden of that scar instead, and Mr. and Mrs. Potter would still be here. But Harry is not the only orphan. We were alone as well, thanks to him. But I don't think he was too keen on letting us live, despite how he left us that first night in the apparently capable hands of his servants, all of whom ended up dead from trying to kill us, none of them powerful enough to leave so much as a scratch on us. We've had a few attempts on our lives since then.. but none in school."

"So your cousin, when he couldn't bring you to his side.. decided to kill you all? His own blood?"

"We denied him. We disowned him. And he had a very childish temper attached to all that power. He killed his own Grandmother."

Snape shuddered at the thought. It was too easy to picture Voldemort mercilessly killing off his own family. He had been that twisted.

"Gannor.. he wasn't technically the first attack on school grounds. The first one was even closer to being sucessful."

Severus looked over to her, his eyes turning from remorse to burning anger. "Someone else on this school's grounds tried to kill you?"

Without another word, Rakka stood and reached for the belt around her neck, unclasping it and sliding it off, resting it on Severus' desk, her fingers brushing against his leg, which he almost didn't notice. His eyes were fixed on the gleaming white scar, reaching from where her neck met her collarbone on the left up under her right ear, a clean, pearl line.

"Durrendell. He was trying to sneak off to kill Dumbledore. I found out. He left me for dead at the password locked door to the headmaster's office. If Dumbledore hadn't heard my screams... if he hadn't found me, I would have died."

Severus hugged Rakka gently, letting her rest her temple just below his collarbone as he sat on the desk, sliding his left leg back, bent, to let her sit on the edge beside him, nestled in the bend of his leg and curled in his arms.

"Dumbledore.. he made you Head Girl out of gratitude, didn't he? You nearly gave your own life to save his."

Rakka nodded. "My own cousin... killing every adult who ever cared for us.. sending people to kill us as well, and anyone who protected us. He's too afraid to kill us himself. He doesn't want to suffer the reversal of his own curses again.. after Grandma and Aunt Trista and Uncle Lumis all died for us.. can't be sure if it would be stronger than Harry's defense because there were three of them, or if it would be weaker because there are seven of us splitting it. I don't think he wants to find out, the filthy bastard."

"Stay here," Severus said quietly. "I'll help Dumbledore defend you. He owes you his life. I'm sure he can find you a job.. perhaps you can help Hagrid or something."

"No.. hiding here won't help anything, and I can't endanger Dumbledore again, or the students here...or you."

"Please... stay," Severus held her tightly. "If not for Dumbledore.. then for me."

Rakka looked up at Severus, a bit confused. He smiled lightly.

"Come now, Rakka, don't play a fool, it doesn't work with me. I love you, and you know it. You've known it all along."

"Severus... I.." she wrapped one arm loosely around his neck, her fingers toying with his hair, which was only about five or six inches shorter than her own, brushing the bottom of his shoulder blades.

She stuttered, and he didn't have the patience to let her finish her thought. He kissed her, slow and as soft as he could bear to, finally succombing to the temptation he'd felt since that first afternoon, in that very same office.

Rakka closed her eyes, kissing him back, firmly responding to his touch, her fingers working up into his hair, along his scalp at the base of his neck, making him shudder.

"I love you, too," she whispered. She stood up, sliding her right hip off the desk, which she had been somewhat resting on. He stood as well, not taking his arms off from around her, one hand on her shoulder, the other on the small of her back, the ends of her curls brushing his fingertips. He guided her gently into the next room, closing the door behind them, sealing it with a quick spell.

He awoke the next morning, expecting to see Rakka beside him. But when he rolled over, all he found was a note.

_Dear Sev,_

_I love you, and I know you love me, and I'm sorry I had to leave, but when I told you what I did yesterday, it was because I wanted you to know why I was leaving. I'm sorry, Severus. I want to be with you more than anything in the world, but by staying, I will only hurt you more. Loving anyone of our bloodline is dangerous, and too many have died already. I know you would give up your job, or even your life for me, you would follow me to the ends of the earth, just so we could be together.. but I could never ask that of you._

_Last night never should have happened, and I'm sorry to do that to you. To leave you after that is something that will haunt me, as will every tear you ever shed for me. It kills me to leave, Sev, and as much as it hurts, I want you to go on without me. Don't suffer in my name, too much suffering has already been felt because of me. I hope that you can look back on last night as a fond memory, but nothing more._

_Don't try to follow, I'll be gone with the first whistle of the Hogwarts Express. And don't worry, Grandma, Aunt Trista, and Uncle Perrellfoot cast one hell of a protection spell, so I don't think I'll get into any trouble I can't handle._

_Missing you already._

_Love, Rakka._

"No.." he murmured. This couldn't be happening, not now, when it seemed things were finally going right for both of them. How could she leave? What if something happened, with no one there to protect her? Even the deaths of her family may not be enough to Protect her from the Dark Lord!

"The first whistle of the Hogwarts Express... " Severus turned to the clock in the corner. "I still have time."

"I'm sorry to see you go, Rakka dear," Dumbledore smiled halfheartedly. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay here? Hagrid's got alot of work. He could use an assistant. Or if you're up to a challenge, Professor Snape has been wanting to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, and you would make an excellent Potions teacher."

"No, thank you, Professor Dumbledore," Rakka smiled with a light, quiet laugh. "I think I've hidden here too long already."

"Well, do be careful, my dear," he smiled.

"I will," she promised, giving her old headmaster a hug. "Oh, and Professor Dumbledore? Could you do me one last favor? I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Surely," he nodded.

"If.. well, more likely, when you see Professor Snape.. he's firmly said how he feels about me leaving.. tell him.. tell him it's all for the best."

Dumbledore nodded carefully. "You're a fine young woman, Rakka. You've got good judgement. Better than anyone else I know, myself included. Do stay safe."

"Of course," she smiled gratefully, as the last boarding bell rang. "Well, I'd best be off. Farewell, Professor!"

"Goodbye, Rakka, don't forget to visit," Dumbledore waved as she climbed aboard the train. As the whistles of the Hogwarts Express gave a merry little toot, the train rolled out of the station, the many sounds of the great locomotive echoing off the flagstone.

As the train rolled out of the station, Professor Snape, half dressed, ran at top speed across the flagstone, coming to a dead stop a few dozen feet behind Dumbledore. It was too late. She was gone.

"She told me to tell you that this is all for the best," Dumbledore said, just loud enough for Severus to hear him.

Snape's heart leapt into his throat. "It.. it's not what you think it is.. I.."

"No, it is what I think it is," Dumbledore turned to face Snape, his face not showing any signs of intending to reprimand the heartbroken young teacher. "It's two young, respectable adults falling prey to the one magic no wizard can control."

Dumbledore smiled, and Severus finally let out the breath he'd been holding. "You're not going to kick me out?"

"After you and Rakka put all that effort in all year, sitting there biting your tongues, going mad, just so that you'd be respecting my rules? Why on earth should I do that? You waited long enough, old sport! It was breaking my heart just to watch you two. You did absolutely nothing wrong."

For the first time since he'd woken up that morning, Severus managed a small smile.

"Thank you, Professor.."

"You've proven yourself again, Severus. I've got no reason not to trust you. I knew, if we just gave you a second chance, you'd prove yourself. Everyone deserves a second chance.. even Death Eaters. Right, Severus?"

Serverus said nothing, stuck on his own memories, recalling the first time Dumbledore had put trust in him, his left hand absentmindedly rubbing at his right forearm.

"Go pack your things, professor," Dumbledore smiled. "You'd best be ready to leave by the next train."

Severus nodded, returning to his office. It seemed darker and colder than usual, though he was accustomed to spending so much time in the dungeon. He gathered his things off his desk, pausing when he spotted a familliar, square, silver belt buckle, gleaming in the light thrown by a blue fire in the lantern hanging overhead. He picked up the small belt, which had been around Rakka's neck only the evening before, holding it so close he could smell the vanilla perfume still on it. With a heavy sigh, he put it in his bag, along with all his other belongings, and headed off for the train.

September came with false promise on the cooling breeze as Severus watched all the upperclassmen climbing off the Hogwarts Express, the same train that had dropped Rakka into his life.. and so brutally torn her away. He stood off to the side, with his arms crossed, one hand raised to pull absentmindedly at a strand of his hair, which he had chopped up to his shoulders, in some strange effort to get his mind off of her during the summer. After all, he needed to start fresh, and his hair had been a terrible mess to take care of. In the sea of students, he spotted an emerald green headband, stuck cleanly into a head of auburn blonde hair. The emerald eyes that matched caught sight of him, and Isamu Perrelfoot, now a third year, waved happily, pushing gently through the crowds to him.

"Professor Snape!" she beamed.

"Hello, Ms. Perrelfoot," Snape said cooly, nodding an acknowledgement.

"What did you do to your hair?"

"It was unprofessional," he frowned. "Tough to take care of. Got in my way."

"Sorry to hear that," she frowned a bit as well. "It looks nice, though it was lovely long. I got an owl post from Rakka last month. She told me to give you this."

Isamu held out a small, gleaming silver pin, about the size to hold a cloak closed. It was a celtic knot, formed by a snake, who's eyes were gleaming bits of emerald.

"To remember her, you know, as a keepsake," Isamu shrugged. "She said you gave her a wonderful gift, and she had to give you something in return, for rememberance."

Severus took the clasp, nodding a thank you to Isamu.

"Well, I'll see you in the Great Hall," she smiled. "I've got to be off. Bye, Professor!"

"Goodbye, Isamu," he said quietly, watching her bounce off excitedly into the crowd. Severus looked down at the clasp, smiling the slightest bit. She didn't need to give him such things for rememberance. She was the one person he could never forget.

_exeunt_


End file.
